THE  AGE 
OF  INVENTION 


HOLLAND  THOMPSON 


THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN   EDITION 

VOLUME  37 

THE  CHRONICLES 

OF  AMERICA  SERIES 

ALLEN  JOHNSON 

EDITOR 

GERHARD   R.   LOMER 

CHARLES   W.   JEFFERYS 

ASSISTANT   EDITORS 


THOMAS  A.  EDISOX  (ABOUT  1877)   WITH  HIS  FIRST 
PHONOGRAPH 

Photograph.     In  the  collection  of  L.  C.  Handy,  Washington. 


THE 
AGE   OF   INVENTION 

A  CHRONICLE   OF 
MECHANICAL  CONQUEST 
BY  HOLLAND   THOMPSON 


NEW  HAVEN:  YALE   UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

TORONTO:   GLASGOW,   BROOK   &   CO. 

LONDON:   HUMPHREY   MILFORD 

OXFORD   UNIVERSITY   PRESS 

1921 


Copyright,  mi,  by  Yale  University  Pro* 


College 
Library 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

THIS  volume  is  not  intended  to  be  a  complete 
record  of  inventive  genius  and  mechanical  progress 
in  the  United  States.  A  bare  catalogue  of  notable 
American  inventions  in  the  nineteenth  century 
alone  could  not  be  compressed  into  these  pages. 
Nor  is  it  any  part  of  the  purpose  of  this  book  to 
trespass  on  the  ground  of  the  many  mechanical 
works  and  encyclopedias  which  give  technical 
descriptions  and  explain  in  detail  the  principle  of 
every  invention.  All  this  book  seeks  to  do  is  to 
outline  the  personalities  of  some  of  the  outstanding 
American  inventors  and  indicate  the  significance 
of  their  achievements. 

Acknowledgments  are  due  the  Editor  of  the 
Series  and  to  members  of  the  staff  of  the  Yale 
University  Press — particularly,  Miss  Constance 
Lindsay  Skinner,  Mr.  Arthur  Edwin  Krows,  and 
Miss  Frances  Hart — without  whose  intelligent 


viii  PREFATORY   NOTE 

assistance  the  book  could  not  have  been  completed 
in  time  to  take  its  place  in  the  Series. 

H.  T. 

COLLEGE  OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK, 
May  10,  1921. 


CONTENTS 

I.     BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN  AND  HIS  TIMES  Page  1 

II.     ELI  WHITNEY  AND  THE  COTTON  GIN  "  32 

III.  STEAM  IN  CAPTIVITY  "  53 

IV.  SPINDLE,  LOOM,  AND  NEEDLE  IN  NEW 

ENGLAND  "  84 

V.     THE  AGRICULTURAL  REVOLUTION  "  110 

VI.     AGENTS  OF  COMMUNICATION  "  128 

VII.     THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER  "  157 

VIII.     PIONEERS  OF  THE  MACHINE  SHOP  "  175 

IX.     THE  FATHERS  OF  ELECTRICITY  "  194 

X.     THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  AIR  "  220 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE  "  247 

INDEX  "  255 


ILLUSTEATIONS 

THOMAS  A.  EDISON  (ABOUT  1877)  WITH 
HIS  FIRST  PHONOGRAPH 

Photograph.      In   the   collection    of   L.    C. 

Handy,  Washington.  Frontispiece 

FRANKLIN'S      ORIGINAL      ELECTRICAL 
MACHINE,  1745 

In  the  collection  of  the  Franklin  Institute  of 
the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  Philadelphia. 
Reproduced  by  courtesy  of  Dr.  G.  A. 
Hoadley.  Facing  page  16 

ROBERT  FULTON 

Painted  by  himself.  Original  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  American  Society  of  Mechanical 
Engineers,  New  York.  "  "  64 

MODEL  OF  STEAM  ENGINE,  BY  OLIVER 
EVANS,  1804 

Photograph  from  the  original  article  in  The 
Franklin  Institute  of  Pennsylvania,  Phila- 
delphia. By  courtesy  of  Dr.  G.  A.  Hoadley.  "  "  80 

HOWE'S  FIRST  SEWING  MACHINE 

Photograph  from  the  original  in  the  National 
Museum,  Washington. 

ELIAS  HOWE 

Painting  in  the  National  Museum,  Washing- 
ton. "  "  104 

McCORMICK'S    REAPER    AS    MANUFAC- 
TURED IN  THE  FIFTIES 
Wood  engraving  by  Chamberlin,  Cincinnati.       "         "     120 


xii  ILLUSTRATIONS 

SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE 

Photograph  by  Brady,  Washington.  Facing  page  m 

JOHN  ERICSSON 

Painting  in  the  possession  of  the  American 

Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers,  New  York.       "         "     176 

ELI  WHITNEY 

Engraving  by  W.  Hoogland  after  a  painting 
by  King. 
CHARLES  GOODYEAR 

Engraving  from  a  daguerreotype.     In  the 

collection  of  L.  C.  Handy,  Washington.  "         "     19% 

RICHARD  HOE 

Wood  engraving  from  a  photograph. 
SAMUEL  PIERPONT  LANGLEY 

Photograph  made  in  1890,  by  Smilley.     In 

the  National  Museum,  Washington.  "         "     QIQ 


THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 
CHAPTER  I 

BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN    AND    HIS   TIMES 

ON  Milk  Street,  in  Boston,  opposite  the  Old  South 
Church,  lived  Josiah  Franklin,  a  maker  of  soap  and 
candles.  He  had  come  to  Boston  with  his  wife 
about  the  year  1682  from  the  parish  of  Ecton, 
Northamptonshire,  England,  where  his  family  had 
lived  on  a  small  freehold  for  about  three  hundred 
years.  His  English  wife  had  died,  leaving  him 
seven  children,  and  he  had  married  a  colonial  girl, 
Abiah  Folger,  whose  father,  Peter  Folger,  was  a 
man  of  some  note  in  early  Massachusetts. 

Josiah  Franklin  was  fifty-one  and  his  wife  Abiah 
thirty-nine,  when  the  first  illustrious  American  in- 
ventor was  born  in  their  house  on  Milk  Street, 
January  17,  1706.  He  was  their  eighth  child  and 
Josiah's  tenth  son  and  was  baptized  Benjamin. 


2  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

What  little  we  know  of  Benjamin's  childhood  is 
contained  in  his  Autobiography,  which  the  world 
has  accepted  as  one  of  its  best  books  and  which  was 
the  first  American  book  to  be  so  accepted.    In  the 
crowded  household,  where  thirteen  children  grew 
to  manhood  and  womanhood,  there  were  no  luxu- 
ries.   Benjamin's  period  of  formal  schooling  was 
less  than  two  years,  though  he  could  never  remem- 
ber the  time  when  he  could  not  read,  and  at  the 
age  of  ten  he  was  put  to  work  in  his  father's  shop. 
Benjamin  was  restless  and  unhappy  in  the  shop. 
He  appeared  to  have  no  aptitude  at  all  for  the 
business  of  soap  making.     His  parents  debated 
whether  they  might  not  educate  him  for  the  minis- 
try, and  his  father  took  him  into  various  shops  in 
Boston,  where  he  might  see  artisans  at  work,  in  the 
hope  that  he  would  be  attracted  to  some  trade. 
But  Benjamin  saw  nothing  there  that  he  wished 
to  engage  in.    He  was  inclined  to  follow  the  sea,  as 
one  of  his  older  brothers  had  done. 

His  fondness  for  books  finally  determined  his 
career.  His  older  brother  James  was  a  printer,  and 
in  those  days  a  printer  was  a  literary  man  as  well 
as  a  mechanic.  The  editor  of  a  newspaper  was 
always  a  printer  and  often  composed  his  articles  as 
he  set  them  in  type;  so  "composing"  came  to  mean 


FRANKLIN  AND  HIS  TIMES  3 

typesetting,  and  one  who  sets  type  is  a  compositor. 
Now  James  needed  an  apprentice.  It  happened 
then  that  young  Benjamin,  at  the  age  of  thirteen, 
was  bound  over  by  law  to  serve  his  brother. 

James  Franklin  printed  the  New  England  Cour- 
ant,  the  fourth  newspaper  to  be  established  in  the 
colonies.  Benjamin  soon  began  to  write  articles 
for  this  newspaper.  Then  when  his  brother  was  put 
in  jail,  because  he  had  printed  matter  considered 
libelous,  and  forbidden  to  continue  as  the  publisher, 
the  newspaper  appeared  in  Benjamin's  name. 

The  young  apprentice  felt  that  his  brother  was 
unduly  severe  and,  after  serving  for  about  two 
years,  made  up  his  mind  to  run  away.  Secretly  he 
took  passage  on  a  sloop  and  in  three  days  reached 
New  York,  there  to  find  that  the  one  printer  in  the 
town,  William  Bradford,  could  give  him 'no  work. 
Benjamin  then  set  out  for  Philadelphia.  By  boat  to 
Perth  Amboy,  on  foot  to  Burlington,  and  then  by 
boat  to  Philadelphia  was  the  course  of  his  journey, 
which  consumed  five  days.  On  a  Sunday  morning 
in  October,  1723,  the  tired,  hungry  boy  landed 
upon  the  Market  Street  wharf,  and  at  once  set 
out  to  find  food  and  explore  America's  metropolis. 

Benjamin  found  employment  with  Samuel  Kei- 
mer,  an  eccentric  printer  just  beginning  business, 


4  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

and  lodgings  at  the  house  of  Read,  whose  daughter 
Deborah  was  later  to  become  his  wife.  The  in- 
telligent young  printer  soon  attracted  the  notice  of 
Sir  William  Keith,  Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  who 
promised  to  set  him  up  in  business.  First,  however, 
he  must  go  to  London  to  buy  a  printing  outfit. 
On  the  Governor's  promise  to  send  a  letter  of  credit 
for  his  needs  in  London,  Franklin  set  sail;  but  the 
Governor  broke  his  word,  and  Franklin  was  obliged 
to  remain  in  London  nearly  two  years  working  at 
his  trade.  It  was  in  London  that  he  printed  the 
first  of  his  many  pamphlets,  an  attack  on  revealed 
religion,  called  A  Dissertation  on  Liberty  and  Neces- 
sity, Pleasure  and  Pain.  Though  he  met  some  in- 
teresting persons,  from  each  of  whom  he  extracted, 
according  to  his  custom,  every  particle  of  informa- 
tion possible,  no  future  opened  for  him  in  London, 
and  he  accepted  an  offer  to  return  to  Philadelphia 
with  employment  as  a  clerk.  But  early  in  1727  his 
employer  died,  and  Benjamin  went  back  to  his 
trade,  as  printers  always  do.  He  found  work  again 
in  Keimer's  printing  office.  Here  his  mechanical 
ingenuity  and  general  ability  presently  began  to 
appear;  he  invented  a  method  of  casting  type, 
made  ink,  and  became,  in  fact,  the  real  manager  of 
the  business. 


FRANKLIN  AND  HIS  TIMES  5 

The  ability  to  make  friends  was  one  of  Franklin's 
traits,  and  the  number  of  his  acquaintances  grew 
rapidly,  both  in  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey. 
"I  grew  convinced,"  he  naively  says,  "that  truth, 
sincerity,  and  integrity  in  dealings  between  man  and 
man  were  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the  felicity 
of  life."  Not  long  after  his  return  from  England 
he  founded  in  Philadelphia  the  Junto,  a  society 
which  at  its  regular  meetings  argued  various  ques- 
tions and  criticized  the  writings  of  the  members. 
Through  this  society  he  enlarged  his  reputation  as 
well  as  his  education. 

The  father  of  an  apprentice  at  Keimer's  fur- 
nished the  money  to  buy  a  printing  outfit  for  his 
son  and  Franklin,  but  the  son  soon  sold  his  share, 
and  Benjamin  Franklin,  Printer,  was  fairly  estab- 
lished in  business  at  the  age  of  twenty-four.  The 
writing  of  an  anonymous  pamphlet  on  The  Nature 
and  Necessity  of  a  Paper  Currency  called  attention 
to  the  need  of  a  further  issue  of  paper  money  in 
Pennsylvania,  and  the  author  of  the  tract  was  re- 
warded with  the  contract  to  print  the  money,  "a 
very  profitable  jobb,  and  a  great  help  to  me." 
Small  favors  were  thankfully  received.  And:  "I 
took  care  not  only  to  be  in  reality  industrious  and 
frugal,  but  to  avoid  all  appearances  to  the  contrary. 


6  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

I  drest  plainly;  I  was  seen  at  no  places  of  idle  di- 
version." And,  "to  show  that  I  was  not  above  my 
business,  I  sometimes  brought  home  the  paper 
I  purchas'd  at  the  stores  thro'  the  streets  on  a 
wheelbarrow." 

The  Universal  Instructor  in  All  Arts  and  Sciences 
and  Pennsylvania  Gazette:  this  was  the  high-sound- 
ing name  of  a  newspaper  which  Franklin's  old 
employer,  Keimer,  had  started  in  Philadelphia. 
But  bankruptcy  shortly  overtook  Keimer,  and 
Franklin  took  the  newspaper  with  its  ninety  sub- 
scribers. The  "Universal  Instructor"  feature  of 
the  paper  consisted  of  a  page  or  two  weekly  of 
Chambers' 's  Encyclopedia.  Franklin  eliminated  this 
feature  and  dropped  the  first  part  of  the  long  name. 
The  Pennsylvania  Gazette  in  Franklin's  hands  soon 
became  profitable.  And  it  lives  today  in  the  full- 
ness of  abounding  life,  though  under  another  name. 
"Founded  A?tf  1728  by  Benj.  Franklin"  is  the 
proud  legend  of  The  Saturday  Evening  Post,  which 
carries  on,  in  our  own  times,  the  Franklin  tradition. 

The  Gazette  printed  bits  of  local  news,  extracts 
from  the  London  Spectator,  jokes,  verses,  humorous 
attacks  on  Bradford's  Mercury,  a  rival  paper,  moral 
essays  by  the  editor,  elaborate  hoaxes,  and  pungent 
political  or  social  criticism.  Often  the  editor  wrote 


FRANKLIN  AND  HIS  TIMES  7 

and  printed  letters  to  himself,  either  to  emphasize 
some  truth  or  to  give  him  the  opportunity  to  ridi- 
cule some  folly  in  a  reply  to  "Alice  Addertongue," 
"Anthony  After  wit,"  or  other  mythical  but  none 
the  less  typical  person. 

If  the  countryman  did  not  read  a  newspaper,  or 
buy  books,  he  was,  at  any  rate,  sure  to  own  an 
almanac.  So  in  1732  Franklin  brought  out  Poor 
Richard's  Almanack.  Three  editions  were  sold 
within  a  few  months.  Year  after  year  the  sayings 
of  Richard  Saunders,  the  alleged  publisher,  and 
Bridget,  his  wife,  creations  of  Franklin's  fancy, 
were  printed  in  the  almanac.  Years  later  the  most 
striking  of  these  sayings  were  collected  and  pub- 
lished. This  work  has  been  translated  into  as  many 
as  twenty  languages  and  is  still  in  circulation  today. 

Franklin  kept  a  shop  in  connection  with  his 
printing  office,  where  he  sold  a  strange  variety  of 
goods :  legal  blanks,  ink,  pens,  paper,  books,  maps, 
pictures,  chocolate,  coffee,  cheese,  codfish,  soap, 
linseed  oil,  broadcloth,  Godfrey's  cordial,  tea, 
spectacles,  rattlesnake  root,  lottery  tickets,  and 
stoves  —  to  mention  only  a  few  of  the  many 
articles  he  advertised.  Deborah  Read,  who  be- 
came his  wife  in  1730,  looked  after  his  house, 
tended  shop,  folded  and  stitched  pamphlets, 


8  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

bought  rags,  and  helped  him  to  live  economically. 
"We  kept  no  idle  servants,"  says  Franklin,  "our 
table  was  plain  and  simple,  our  furniture  of  the 
cheapest.  For  instance,  my  breakfast  was  a  long 
time  bread  and  milk  (no  tea) ,  and  I  ate  it  out  of  a 
twopenny  earthen  porringer  with  a  pewter  spoon." 

With  all  this  frugality,  Franklin  was  not  a  miser; 
he  abhorred  the  waste  of  money,  not  the  proper 
use.  His  wealth  increased  rapidly.  ' '  I  experienced 
too,"  he  says,  "the  truth  of  the  observation,  'that 
after  getting  the  first  hundred  pound,  it  is  more  easy 
to  get  the  second,'  money  itself  being  of  a  prolific 
nature."  He  gave  much  unpaid  public  service  and 
subscribed  generously  to  public  purposes;  yet  he 
was  able,  at  the  early  age  of  forty-two,  to  turn  over 
his  printing  office  to  one  of  his  journeymen,  and  to 
retire  from  active  business,  intending  to  devote 
himself  thereafter  to  such  public  employment  as 
should  come  his  way,  to  philosophical  or  scientific 
studies,  and  to  amusements. 

From  boyhood  Franklin  had  been  interested  in 
natural  phenomena.  His  Journal  of  a  Voyage  from 
London  to  Philadelphia,  written  at  sea  as  he  re- 
turned from  his  first  stay  in  London,  shows  un- 
usual powers  of  exact  observation  for  a  youth  of 
twenty.  Many  of  the  questions  he  propounded  to 


FRANKLIN  AND  HIS  TIMES  9 

the  Junto  had  a  scientific  bearing.  He  made  an 
original  and  important  invention  in  1742,  the 
"Pennsylvania  fireplace,"  which,  under  the  name 
of  the  Franklin  stove,  is  in  common  use  to  this  day, 
and  which  brought  to  the  ill-made  houses  of  the 
time  increased  comfort  and  a  great  saving  of  fuel. 
But  it  brought  Franklin  no  pecuniary  reward,  for 
he  never  deigned  to  patent  any  of  his  inventions. 

His  active,  inquiring  mind  played  upon  hundreds 
of  questions  in  a  dozen  different  branches  of  science. 
He  studied  smoky  chimneys;  he  invented  bifocal 
spectacles ;  he  studied  the  effect  of  oil  upon  ruffled 
water;  he  identified  the  "dry  bellyache"  as  lead 
poisoning;  he  preached  ventilation  in  the  days 
when  windows  were  closed  tight  at  night,  and  upon 
the  sick  at  all  times;  he  investigated  fertilizers  in 
agriculture.  Many  of  his  suggestions  have  since 
borne  fruit,  and  his  observations  show  that  he 
foresaw  some  of  the  great  developments  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

His  fame  in  science  rests  chiefly  upon  his  dis- 
coveries in  electricity.  On  a  visit  to  Boston  in 
1746  he  saw  some  electrical  experiments  and  at 
once  became  deeply  interested.  Peter  Collinson  of 
London,  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  who  had 
made  several  gifts  to  the  Philadelphia  Library,  sent 


10  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

over  some  of  the  crude  electrical  apparatus  of  the 
day,  which  Franklin  used,  as  well  as  some  con- 
trivances he  had  purchased  in  Boston.  He  says  in 
a  letter  to  Collinson:  "For  my  own  part,  I  never 
was  before  engaged  in  any  study  that  so  engrossed 
my  attention  and  my  time  as  this  has  lately  done." 

Franklin's  letters  to  Collinson  tell  of  his  first 
experiments  and  speculations  as  to  the  nature  of 
electricity.  Experiments  made  by  a  little  group  of 
friends  showed  the  effect  of  pointed  bodies  in  draw- 
ing off  electricity.  He  decided  that  electricity  was 
not  the  result  of  friction,  but  that  the  mysterious 
force  was  diffused  through  most  substances,  and 
that  nature  is  always  alert  to  restore  its  equi- 
librium. He  developed  the  theory  of  positive  and 
negative  electricity,  or  plus  and  minus  electrifica- 
tion. The  same  letter  tells  of  some  of  the  tricks 
which  the  little  group  of  experimenters  were  accus- 
tomed to  play  upon  their  wondering  neighbors. 
They  set  alcohol  on  fire,  relighted  candles  just 
blown  out,  produced  mimic  flashes  of  lightning, 
gave  shocks  on  touching  or  kissing,  and  caused  an 
artificial  spider  to  move  mysteriously. 

Franklin  carried  on  experiments  with  the  Leyden 
jar,  made  an  electrical  battery,  killed  a  fowl  and 
roasted  it  upon  a  spit  turned  by  electricity,  sent  a 


FRANKLIN  AND  HIS  TIMES  11 

current  through  water  and  found  it  still  able  to 
ignite  alcohol,  ignited  gunpowder,  and  charged 
glasses  of  wine  so  that  the  drinkers  received  shocks. 
More  important,  perhaps,  he  began  to  develop  the 
theory  of  the  identity  of  lightning  and  electricity, 
and  the  possibility  of  protecting  buildings  by  iron 
rods.  By  means  of  an  iron  rod  he  brought  down 
electricity  into  his  house,  where  he  studied  its 
effect  upon  bells  and  concluded  that  clouds  were 
generally  negatively  electrified.  In  June,  1752,  he 
performed  the  famous  experiment  with  the  kite, 
drawing  down  electricity  from  the  clouds  and 
charging  a  Leyden  jar  from  the  key  at  the  end  of 
the  string. 

Franklin's  letters  to  Collinson  were  read  before 
the  Royal  Society  but  were  unnoticed.  Collinson 
gathered  them  together,  and  they  were  published 
in  a  pamphlet  which  attracted  wide  attention. 
Translated  into  French,  they  created  great  excite- 
ment, and  Franklin's  conclusions  were  generally 
accepted  by  the  scientific  men  of  Europe.  The 
Royal  Society,  tardily  awakened,  elected  Franklin 
a  member  and  in  1753  awarded  him  the  Copley 
medal  with  a  complimentary  address.1 

1  It  may  be  useful  to  mention  some  of  the  scientific  facts  and 
mechanical  principles  which  were  known  to  Europeans  at  this 


12  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

If  Franklin's  desire  to  continue  his  scientific  re- 
searches had  been  gratified,  it  is  possible  that  he 
might  have  discovered  some  of  the  secrets  for  which 
the  world  waited  until  Edison  and  his  contempo- 
raries revealed  them  more  than  a  century  later. 
Franklin's  scientific  reputation  has  grown  with  the 
years,  and  some  of  his  views  seem  in  perfect  accord 
with  the  latest  developments  in  electricity.  But 
he  was  not  to  be  permitted  to  continue  his  experi- 
ments. He  had  shown  his  ability  to  manage  men 
and  was  to  be  called  to  a  wider  neld. 

Franklin's  influence  among  his  fellow  citizens  in 

time.  More  than  one  learned  essay  has  been  written  to  prove 
the  mechanical  indebtedness  of  the  modern  world  to  the  ancient, 
particularly  to  the  works  of  those  mechanically  minded  Greeks: 
Archimedes,  Aristotle,  Ctesibius,  and  Hero  of  Alexandria.  The 
Greeks  employed  the  lever,  the  tackle,  and  the  crane,  the  force- 
pump,  and  the  suction-pump.  They  had  discovered  that  steam 
could  be  mechanically  applied,  though  they  never  made  any 
practical  use  of  steam.  In  common  with  other  ancients  they 
knew  the  principle  of  the  mariner's  compass.  The  Egyptians  had 
the  water-wheel  and  the  rudimentary  blast-furnace.  The  pen- 
dulum clock  appears  to  have  been  an  invention  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  The  art  of  printing  from  movable  type,  beginning  with 
Gutenberg  about  1450,  helped  to  further  the  Renaissance.  The 
improved  mariner's  compass  enabled  Columbus  to  find  the  New 
World;  gunpowder  made  possible  its  conquest.  The  compound 
microscope  and  the  first  practical  telescope  came  from  the  spec- 
tacle makers  of  Middelburg,  Holland,  the  former  about  1590  and 
the  latter  about  1608.  Harvey,  an  English  physician,  had  dis- 
covered the  circulation  of  the  blood  in  1628,  and  Newton,  an 
English  mathematician,  the  law  of  gravitation  in  1685. 


FRANKLIN  AND  HIS  TIMES  13 

Philadelphia  was  very  great.  Always  ostensibly 
keeping  himself  in  the  background  and  working 
through  others,  never  contradicting,  but  carrying 
his  point  by  shrewd  questions  which  showed  the 
folly  of  the  contrary  position,  he  continued  to  set 
on  foot  and  carry  out  movements  for  the  public 
good.  He  established  the  first  circulating  library 
in  Philadelphia,  and  one  of  the  first  in  the  country, 
and  an  academy  which  grew  into  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania.  He  was  instrumental  in  the  foun- 
dation of  a  hospital.  "I  am  often  ask'd  by  those 
to  whom  I  propose  subscribing,"  said  one  of  the 
doctors  who  had  made  fruitless  attempts  to  raise 
money  for  the  hospital,  "Have  you  consulted 
Franklin  upon  this  business?"  Other  public 
matters  in  which  the  busy  printer  was  engaged 
were  the  paving  and  cleaning  of  the  streets,  better 
street  lighting,  the  organization  of  a  police  force 
and  of  a  fire  company.  A  pamphlet  which  he  pub- 
lished, Plain  Truth,  showing  the  helplessness  of  the 
colony  against  the  French  and  Indians,  led  to  the 
organization  of  a  volunteer  militia,  and  funds  were 
raised  for  arms  by  a  lottery.  Franklin  himself  was 
elected  colonel  of  the  Philadelphia  regiment,  "but 
considering  myself  unfit,  I  declined  the  station  and 
recommended  Mr.  Lawrence,  a  fine  person  and 


14  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

man  of  influence,  who  was  accordingly  appointed." 
In  spite  of  his  militarism,  Franklin  retained  the 
position  which  he  held  as  Clerk  of  the  Assembly, 
though  the  majority  of  the  members  were  Quakers 
opposed  to  war  on  principle. 

The  American  Philosophical  Society  owes  its 
origin  to  Franklin.  It  was  formally  organized  on 
his  motion  in  1743,  but  the  society  has  accepted 
the  organization  of  the  Junto  in  1727  as  the  actual 
date  of  its  birth.  From  the  beginning  the  society 
has  had  among  its  members  many  leading  men  of 
scientific  attainments  or  tastes,  not  only  of  Phila- 
delphia, but  of  the  world.  In  1769  the  original 
society  was  consolidated  with  another  of  similar 
aims,  and  Franklin,  who  was  the  first  secretary  of 
the  society,  was  elected  president  and  served  until 
his  death.  The  first  important  undertaking  was 
the  successful  observation  of  the  transit  of  Venus 
in  1769,  and  many  important  scientific  discoveries 
have  since  been  made  by  its  members  and  first 
given  to  the  world  at  its  meetings. 

Franklin's  appointment  as  one  of  the  two  Depu- 
ty Postmasters  General  of  the  colonies  in  1753 
enlarged  his  experience  and  his  reputation.  He 
visited  nearly  all  the  post  offices  in  the  colonies  and 
introduced  many  improvements  into  the  service. 


FRANKLIN  AND  HIS  TIMES  15 

In  none  of  his  positions  did  his  transcendent  busi- 
ness ability  show  to  better  advantage.  He  estab- 
lished new  postal  routes  and  shortened  others. 
There  were  no  good  roads  in  the  colonies,  but  his 
post  riders  made  what  then  seemed  wonderful 
speed.  The  bags  were  opened  to  newspapers,  the 
carrying  of  which  had  previously  been  a  private 
and  unlawful  perquisite  of  the  riders.  Previously 
there  had  been  one  mail  a  week  hi  summer  between 
New  York  and  Philadelphia  and  one  a  month  in 
winter.  The  service  was  increased  to  three  a  week 
in  summer  and  one  in  winter. 

The  main  post  road  ran  from  northern  New 
England  to  Savannah,  closely  hugging  the  seacoast 
for  the  greater  part  of  the  way.  Some  of  the  mile- 
stones set  by  Franklin  to  enable  the  postmasters  to 
compute  the  postage,  which  was  fixed  according  to 
distance,  are  still  standing.  Crossroads  connected 
some  of  the  larger  communities  away  from  the 
seacoast  with  the  main  road,  but  when  Franklin 
died,  after  serving  also  as  Postmaster  General  of 
the  United  States,  there  were  only  seventy-five 
post  offices  in  the  entire  country. 

Franklin  took  a  hand  in  the  final  struggle  be- 
tween France  and  England  in  America.  On  the 
eve  of  the  conflict,  in  1754,  commissioners  from  the 


16  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

several  colonies  were  ordered  to  convene  at  Albany 
for  a  conference  with  the  Six  Nations  of  the  Iro- 
quois,  and  Franklin  was  one  of  the  deputies  from 
Pennsylvania.  On  his  way  to  Albany  he  "pro- 
jected and  drew  a  plan  for  the  union  of  all  the 
colonies  under  one  government  so  far  as  might  be 
necessary  for  defense  and  other  important  general 
purposes."  This  statesmanlike  "Albany  Plan  of 
Union, "  however,  came  to  nothing.  "  Its  fate  was 
singular,"  says  Franklin;  "the  assemblies  did  not 
adopt  it,  as  they  all  thought  there  was  too  much 
prerogative  in  it  and  in  England  it  was  judg'd  to 
have  too  much  of  the  democratic." 

How  to  raise  funds  for  defense  was  always  a 
grave  problem  in  the  colonies,  for  the  assemblies 
controlled  the  purse-strings  and  released  them 
with  a  grudging  hand.  In  face  of  the  French  men- 
ace, this  was  Governor  Shirley's  problem  in  Massa- 
chusetts, Governor  Dinwiddie's  in  Virginia,  and 
Franklin's  in  the  Quaker  and  proprietary  province 
of  Pennsylvania.  Franklin  opposed  Shirley's  sug- 
gestion of  a  general  tax  to  be  levied  on  the  colonies 
by  Parliament,  on  the  ground  of  no  taxation  with- 
out representation,  but  used  all  his  arts  to  bring 
the  Quaker  Assembly  to  vote  money  for  defense, 
and  succeeded.  When  General  Braddock  arrived 


ORIGINAL  ELECTRICAL  MACHINE, 

17  J-5 

In  the  collection  of  the  Franklin  Institute  of  the  State  of  Penn- 
sylvania, Philadelphia.  Reproduced  by  courtesy  of  Dr.  G.  A. 
Hoadley. 


FRANKLIN  AND  HIS  TIMES  17 

in  Virginia  Franklin  was  sent  by  the  Assembly  to 
confer  with  him  in  the  hope  of  allaying  any  preju- 
dice against  Quakers  that  the  general  might  have 
conceived.  If  that  blustering  and  dull-witted 
soldier  had  any  such  prejudice,  it  melted  away 
when  the  envoy  of  the  Quakers  promised  to  procure 
wagons  for  the  army.  The  story  of  Braddock's 
disaster  does  not  belong  here,  but  Franklin  formed 
a  shrewd  estimate  of  the  man  which  proved  accu- 
rate. His  account  of  Braddock's  opinion  of  the 
colonial  militia  is  given  in  a  sentence:  "He  smiPd 
at  my  ignorance,  and  reply 'd,  'These  savages  may, 
indeed,  be  a  formidable  enemy  to  your  raw  Ameri- 
can militia,  but  upon  the  King's  regular  and  dis- 
ciplin'd  troops,  sir,  it  is  impossible  they  should 
make  any  impression."'  After  Braddock's  defeat 
the  Pennsylvania  Assembly  voted  more  money  for 
defense,  and  the  unmilitary  Franklin  was  placed  in 
command  of  the  frontier  with  full  power.  He  built 
forts,  as  he  had  planned,  and  incidentally  learned 
much  of  the  beliefs  of  a  group  of  settlers  in  the  back 
country,  the  "Unitas  Fratrum, "  better  known  as 
the  Moravians. 

The  death  struggle  between  English  and  French 
in  America  served  only  to  intensify  a  lesser  conflict 
that  was  being  waged  between  the  Assembly  and 


18  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

the  proprietors  of  Pennsylvania;  and  the  Assembly 
determined  to  send  Franklin  to  London  to  seek 
judgment  against  the  proprietors  and  to  request 
the  King  to  take  away  from  them  the  government 
of  Pennsylvania.  Franklin,  accompanied  by  his 
son  William,  reached  London  in  July,  1757,  and 
from  this  time  on  his  life  was  to  be  closely  linked 
with  Europe.  He  returned  to  America  six  years 
later  and  made  a  trip  of  sixteen  hundred  miles  in- 
specting postal  affairs,  but  in  1764  he  was  again 
sent  to  England  to  renew  the  petition  for  a  royal 
government  for  Pennsylvania,  which  had  not  yet 
been  granted.  Presently  that  petition  was  made 
obsolete  by  the  Stamp  Act,  and  Franklin  became 
the  representative  of  the  American  colonies  against 
King  and  Parliament. 

Franklin  did  his  best  to  avert  the  Revolution. 
He  made  many  friends  in  England,  wrote  pam- 
phlets and  articles,  told  comical  stories  and  fables 
where  they  might  do  some  good,  and  constantly 
strove  to  enlighten  the  ruling  class  of  England  upon 
conditions  and  sentiment  in  the  colonies.  His 
examination  before  the  House  of  Commons  in 
February,  1766,  marks  perhaps  the  zenith  of  his 
intellectual  powers.  His  wide  knowledge,  his 
wonderful  poise,  his  ready  wit,  his  marvelous  gift 


FRANKLIN  AND  HIS  TIMES  19 

for  clear  and  epigrammatic  statement,  were  never 
exhibited  to  better  advantage  and  no  doubt  has- 
tened the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  Franklin  re- 
mained in  England  nine  years  longer,  but  his  efforts 
to  reconcile  the  conflicting  claims  of  Parliament 
and  the  colonies  were  of  no  avail,  and  early  in  1775 
he  sailed  for  home. 

Franklin's  stay  in  America  lasted  only  eighteen 
months,  yet  during  that  time  he  sat  in  the  Con- 
tinental Congress  and  as  a  member  of  the  most 
important  committees;  submitted  a  plan  for  a 
union  of  the  colonies;  served  as  Postmaster  General 
and  as  chairman  of  the  Pennsylvania  Committee 
of  Safety;  visited  Washington  at  Cambridge;  went 
to  Montreal  to  do  what  he  could  for  the  cause  of 
independence  in  Canada;  presided  over  the  con- 
vention which  framed  a  constitution  for  Pennsyl- 
vania; was  a  member  of  the  committee  appointed 
to  draft  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  of 
the  committee  sent  on  the  futile  mission  to  New 
York  to  discuss  terms  of  peace  with  Lord  Howe. 

In  September,  1776,  Franklin  was  appointed 
envoy  to  France  and  sailed  soon  afterwards.  The 
envoys  appointed  to  act  with  him  proved  a  handi- 
cap rather  than  a  help,  and  the  great  burden  of  a 
difficult  and  momentous  mission  was  thus  laid  upon 


20  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

an  old  man  of  seventy.  But  no  other  American 
could  have  taken  his  place.  His  reputation  in 
France  was  already  made,  through  his  books  and 
inventions  and  discoveries.  To  the  corrupt  and 
licentious  court  he  was  the  personification  of  the 
age  of  simplicity,  which  it  was  the  fashion  to  ad- 
mire; to  the  learned,  he  was  a  sage;  to  the  common 
man  he  was  the  apotheosis  of  all  the  virtues;  to 
the  rabble  he  was  little  less  than  a  god.  Great 
ladies  sought  his  smiles;  nobles  treasured  a  kindly 
word;  the  shopkeeper  hung  his  portrait  on  the 
wall;  and  the  people  drew  aside  in  the  streets 
that  he  might  pass  without  annoyance.  Through 
all  this  adulation  Franklin  passed  serenely,  if  not 
unconsciously. 

The  French  ministers  were  not  at  first  willing  to 
make  a  treaty  of  alliance,  but  under  Franklin's 
influence  they  lent  money  to  the  struggling  colonies. 
Congress  sought  to  finance  the  war  by  the  issue  of 
paper  currency  and  by  borrowing  rather  than  by 
taxation,  and  sent  bill  after  bill  to  Franklin,  who 
somehow  managed  to  meet  them  by  putting  his 
pride  in  his  pocket,  and  applying  again  and 
again  to  the  French  Government.  He  fitted  out 
privateers  and  negotiated  with  the  British  con- 
cerning prisoners.  At  length  he  won  from  France 


FRANKLIN  AND  HIS  TIMES  21 

recognition  of  the  United  States  and  then  the 
Treaty  of  Alliance. 

Not  until  two  years  after  the  Peace  of  1783 
would  Congress  permit  the  veteran  to  come  home. 
And  when  he  did  return  in  1785  his  people  would 
not  allow  him  to  rest.  At  once  he  was  elected  Presi- 
dent of  the  Council  of  Pennsylvania  and  twice 
reflected  in  spite  of  his  protests.  He  was  sent  to 
the  Convention  of  1787  which  framed  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States.  There  he  spoke  seldom 
but  always  to  the  point,  and  the  Constitution  is 
the  better  for  his  suggestions.  With  pride  he 
affixed  his  signature  to  that  great  instrument,  as 
he  had  previously  signed  the  Albany  Plan  of  Union, 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  the  Treaty 
of  Paris. 

Benjamin  Franklin's  work  was  done.  He  was 
now  an  old  man  of  eighty-two  summers  and  his 
feeble  body  was  racked  by  a  painful  malady.  Yet 
he  kept  his  face  towards  the  morning.  About  a 
hundred  of  his  letters,  written  after  this  time,  have 
been  preserved.  These  letters  show  no  retrospec- 
tion, no  looking  backward.  They  never  mention 
"the  good  old  times."  As  long  as  he  lived,  Frank- 
lin looked  forward.  His  interest  in  the  mechanical 
arts  and  in  scientific  progress  seems  never  to  have 


22  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

abated.  He  writes  in  October,  1787,  to  a  friend  in 
France,  describing  his  experience  with  lightning 
conductors  and  referring  to  the  work  of  David 
Rittenhouse,  the  celebrated  astronomer  of  Phila- 
delphia. On  the  31st  of  May  in  the  following 
year  he  is  writing  to  the  Reverend  John  Lathrop 
of  Boston: 

I  have  long  been  impressed  with  the  same  sentiments 
you  so  well  express,  of  the  growing  felicity  of  mankind, 
from  the  improvement  in  philosophy,  morals,  politics, 
and  even  the  conveniences  of  common  living,  and  the 
invention  of  new  and  useful  utensils  and  instruments; 
so  that  I  have  sometimes  wished  it  had  been  my  des- 
tiny to  be  born  two  or  three  centuries  hence.  For  in- 
vention and  improvement  are  prolific,  and  beget  more 
of  their  kind.  The  present  progress  is  rapid.  Many  of 
great  importance,  now  unthought  of,  will,  before  that 
period,  be  produced. 

Thus  the  old  philosopher  felt  the  thrill  of  dawn  and 
knew  that  the  day  of  great  mechanical  inventions 
was  at  hand.  He  had  read  the  meaning  of  the 
puffing  of  the  young  steam  engine  of  James  Watt 
and  he  had  heard  of  a  marvelous  series  of  British 
inventions  for  spinning  and  weaving.  He  saw  that 
his  own  countrymen  were  astir,  trying  to  substitute 
the  power  of  steam  for  the  strength  of  muscles  and 
the  fitful  wind.  John  Fitch  on  the  Delaware  and 


FRANKLIN  AND  HIS  TIMES  23 

James  Rumsey  on  the  Potomac  were  already 
moving  vessels  by  steam.  John  Stevens  of  New 
York  and  Hoboken  had  set  up  a  machine  shop  that 
was  to  mean  much  to  mechanical  progress  in 
America.  Oliver  Evans,  a  mechanical  genius  of 
Delaware,  was  dreaming  of  the  application  of  high- 
pressure  steam  to  both  road  and  water  carriages. 
Such  manifestations,  though  still  very  faint,  were 
to  Franklin  the  signs  of  a  new  era. 

And  so,  with  vision  undimmed,  America's  most 
famous  citizen  lived  on  until  near  the  end  of  the 
first  year  of  George  Washington's  administration. 
On  April  17,  1790,  his  unconquerable  spirit  took 
its  flight. 

In  that  year,  1790,  was  taken  the  First  Census 
of  the  United  States.  The  new  nation  had  a  popu- 
lation of  about  four  million  people.  It  then  in- 
cluded practically  the  present  territory  east  of  the 
Mississippi,  except  the  Floridas,  which  belonged  to 
Spain.  But  only  a  small  part  of  this  territory  was 
occupied.  Much  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania 
was  savage  wilderness.  Only  the  seacoast  of 
Maine  was  inhabited,  and  the  eighty-two  thousand 
inhabitants  of  Georgia  hugged  the  Savannah  River. 
Hardy  pioneers  had  climbed  the  Alleghanies  into 


24  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  but  the  Northwest 
Territory  —  comprising  Ohio,  Michigan,  Indiana, 
Illinois,  and  Wisconsin  —  was  not  enumerated  at 
all,  so  scanty  were  its  people,  perhaps  not  more 
than  four  thousand. 

Though  the  First  Census  did  not  classify  the 
population  by  occupation  it  is  certain  that  nine- 
tenths  of  the  breadwinners  worked  more  or  less 
upon  the  soil.  The  remaining  tenth  were  engaged 
in  trade,  transportation,  manufacturing,  fishing, 
and  included  also  the  professional  men,  doctors, 
lawyers,  clergymen,  teachers,  and  the  like.  In 
other  words,  nine  out  of  ten  of  the  population  were 
engaged  primarily  in  the  production  of  food,  an 
occupation  which  today  engages  less  than  three 
out  of  ten.  This  comparison,  however,  requires 
some  qualification.  The  farmer  and  the  farmer's 
wife  and  children  performed  many  tasks  which  are 
now  done  in  factories.  The  successful  farmer  on 
the  frontier  had  to  be  a  jack  of  many  trades.  Often 
he  tanned  leather  and  made  shoes  for  his  family 
and  harness  for  his  horses.  He  was  carpenter, 
blacksmith,  cobbler,  and  often  boat-builder  and 
fisherman  as  well.  His  wife  made  soap  and  can- 
dles, spun  yarn  and  dyed  it,  wove  cloth  and 
made  the  clothes  the  family  wore,  to  mention  only 


FRANKLIN  AND  HIS  TIMES  25 

a  few  of  the  tasks  of  the  women  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

The  organization  of  industry,  however,  was  be- 
ginning. Here  and  there  were  small  paper  mills, 
glass  factories  —  though  many  houses  in  the  back 
country  were  without  glass  windows  —  potteries, 
and  iron  foundries  and  forges.  Capitalists,  in  some 
places,  had  brought  together  a  few  handloom 
weavers  to  make  cloth  for  sale,  and  the  famous 
shoemakers  of  Massachusetts  commonly  worked 
in  groups. 

The  mineral  resources  of  the  United  States 
were  practically  unknown.  The  country  seems  to 
have  produced  iron  enough  for  its  simple  needs, 
some  coal,  copper,  lead,  gold,  silver,  and  sulphur. 
But  we  may  say  that  mining  was  hardly  practiced 
at  all. 

The  fisheries  and  the  shipyards  were  great 
sources  of  wealth,  especially  for  New  England. 
The  cod  fishers  numbered  several  hundred  vessels 
and  the  whalers  about  forty.  Thousands  of  citi- 
zens living  along  the  seashore  and  the  rivers  fished 
more  or  less  to  add  to  the  local  food  supply.  The 
deep-sea  fishermen  exported  a  part  of  their  catch, 
dried  and  salted.  Yankee  vessels  sailed  to  all  ports 
of  the  world  and  carried  the  greater  part  of  the 


26  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

foreign  commerce  of  the  United  States.     Flour, 
tobacco,  rice,  wheat,  corn,  dried  fish,  potash,  indigo, 
and  staves  were  the  principal   exports.     Great 
Britain  was  the  best  customer,  with  the  French 
West  Indies  next,  and  then  the  British  West  Indies. 
The  principal  imports  came  from  the  same  coun- 
tries.   Imports  and  exports  practically  balanced 
each  other,  at  about  twenty  million  dollars  an- 
nually, or  about  five  dollars  a  head.     The  great 
merchants  owned  ships  and  many  of  them,  such  as 
John  Hancock  of  Boston,  and  Stephen  Girard  of 
Philadelphia,  had  grown  very  rich. 

Inland  transportation  depended  on  horses  and 
oxen  or  boats.  There  were  few  good  roads,  some- 
times none  at  all  save  bridle  paths  and  trails.  The 
settlers  along  the  river  valleys  used  boats  almost 
entirely.  Stage-coaches  made  the  journey  from 
New  York  to  Boston  in  four  days  in  summer  and 
in  six  in  winter.  Two  days  were  required  to  go 
between  New  York  and  Philadelphia.  Forty  to 
fifty  miles  a  day  was  the  speed  of  the  best  coaches, 
provided  always  that  they  did  not  tumble  into  the 
ditch.  In  many  parts  of  the  country  one  must 
needs  travel  on  horseback  or  on  foot. 

Even  the  wealthiest  Americans  of  those  days  had 
few  or  none  of  the  articles  which  we  regard  today 


FRANKLIN  AND  HIS  TIMES  27 

as  necessities  of  life.  The  houses  were  provided 
with  open  fires  —  which,  however  cheerful,  did  not 
keep  them  warm  —  or  else  with  Franklin's  stoves. 
To  strike  a  fire  one  must  have  the  flint  and  tinder- 
box,  for  matches  were  unknown  until  about  1830. 
Candles  made  the  darkness  visible.  There  was 
neither  plumbing  nor  running  water.  Food  was 
cooked  in  the  ashes  or  over  an  open  fire. 

The  farmer's  tools  were  no  less  crude  than  his 
wife's.  His  plough  had  been  little  improved  since 
the  days  of  Rameses.  He  sowed  his  wheat  by  hand, 
cut  it  with  a  sickle,  flailed  it  out  upon  the  floor, 
and  laboriously  winnowed  away  the  chaff.  !  * 

In  that  same  year,  1790,  came  a  great  boon  and 
encouragement  to  inventors,  the  first  Federal 
Patent  Act,  passed  by  Congress  on  the  10th  of 
April.  Every  State  had  its  own  separate  patent 
laws  or  regulations,  as  an  inheritance  from  colonial 
days,  but  the  Fathers  of  the  Constitution  had 
wisely  provided  that  this  function  of  government 
should  be  exercised  by  the  nation.1  The  Patent 
Act,  however,  was  for  a  time  unpopular,  and  some 

'The  Constitution  (Article  I,  Section  8,  Clause  8)  empowers 
Congress:  "To  promote  the  Progress  of  Science  and  useful  Arts, 
by  securing  for  limited  Times  to  Authors  and  Inventors  the 
exclusive  Right  to  their  respective  Writings  and  Discoveries." 


28  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

States  granted  monopolies,  particularly  of  trans- 
portation, until  they  were  forbidden  to  do  so  by 
judicial  decision. 

The  first  Patent  Act  provided  that  an  examining 
board,  consisting  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  the 
Secretary  of  War,  and  the  Attorney-General,  or 
any  two  of  them,  might  grant  a  patent  for  four- 
teen years,  if  they  deemed  the  invention  useful 
and  important.  The  patent  itself  was  to  be  en- 
grossed and  signed  by  the  President,  the  Secretary 
of  State,  and  the  Attorney-General.  And  the  cost 
was  to  be  three  dollars  and  seventy  cents,  plus 
the  cost  of  copying  the  specifications  at  ten  cents 
a  sheet. 

The  first  inventor  to  avail  himself  of  the  ad- 
vantages of  the  new  Patent  Act  was  Samuel  Hop- 
kins of  Vermont,  who  received  a  patent  on  the 
31st  of  July  for  an  improved  method  of  "Making 
Pot  and  Pearl  Ashes."  The  world  knows  nothing 
of  this  Samuel  Hopkins,  but  the  potash  industry, 
which  was  evidently  on  his  mind,  was  quite  im- 
portant in  his  day.  Potash,  that  is,  crude  potas- 
sium carbonate,  useful  in  making  soap  and  in  the 
manufactu-e  of  glass,  was  made  by  leaching  wood 
ashes  and  boiling  down  the  lye.  To  produce  a  ton 
of  potash,  the  trees  on  an  acre  of  ground  would  be 


FRANKLIN  AND  HIS  TIMES  29 

cut  down  and  burned,  the  ashes  leached,  and  the 
lye  evaporated  in  great  iron  kettles.  A  ton  of 
potash  was  worth  about  twenty-five  dollars.  Noth- 
ing could  show  more  plainly  the  relative  value  of 
money  and  human  labor  in  those  early  times. 

Two  more  patents  were  issued  during  the  year 
1790.  The  second  went  to  Joseph  S.  Sampson  of 
Boston  for  a  method  of  making  candles,  and  the 
third  to  Oliver  Evans,  of  whom  we  shall  learn  more 
presently,  for  an  improvement  in  manufacturing 
flour  and  meal.  The  fourth  patent  was  granted  in 
1791  to  Francis  Baily  of  Philadelphia  for  making 
punches  for  types.  Next  Aaron  Putnam  of  Med- 
ford,  Massachusetts,  thought  that  he  could  im- 
prove methods  of  distilling,  and  John  Stone  of 
Concord,  Massachusetts,  offered  a  new  method  of 
driving  piles  for  bridges.  And  a  versatile  inventor, 
Samuel  Mulliken  of  Philadelphia,  received  four 
patents  in  one  day  for  threshing  grain,  cutting 
and  polishing  marble,  raising  a  nap  on  cloth,  and 
breaking  hemp. 

Then  came  improvements  in  making  nails,  in 
making  bedsteads,  in  the  manufacture  of  boats, 
and  for  propelling  boats  by  cattle.  On  August 
26,  1791,  James  Rumsey,  John  Stevens,  and  John 
Fitch  (all  three  will  appear  again  in  this  narrative) 


30  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

took  out  patents  on  means  of  propelling  boats. 
On  the  same  day  Nathan  Read  received  one  on  a 
process  for  distilling  alcohol. 

More  than  fifty  patents  were  granted  under  the 
Patent  Act  of  1790,  and  mechanical  devices  were 
coming  in  so  thick  and  fast  that  the  department 
heads  apparently  found  it  inconvenient  to  hear 
applications.  So  the  Act  of  1790  was  repealed. 
The  second  Patent. Act  (1793)  provided  that  a 
patent  should  be  granted  as  a  matter  of  routine  to 
any  one  who  swore  to  the  originality  of  his  device 
and  paid  the  sum  of  thirty  dollars  as  a  fee.  No  one 
except  a  citizen,  however,  could  receive  a  patent. 
This  act,  with  some  amendments,  remained  in 
force  until  1836,  when  the  present  Patent  Office 
was  organized  with  a  rigorous  and  intricate  system 
for  examination  of  all  claims  in  order  to  prevent 
interference.  Protection  of  the  property  rights  of 
inventors  has  been  from  the  beginning  of  the 
nation  a  definite  American  policy,  and  to  this 
policy  may  be  ascribed  innumerable  inventions 
which  have  contributed  to  the  greatness  of  Amer- 
ican industry  and  multiplied  the  world's  comforts 
and  conveniences. 

Under  the  second  Patent  Act  came  the  most 
important  invention  yet  offered,  an  invention 


FRANKLIN  AND  HIS  TIMES  31 

which  was  to  affect  generations  then  unborn.  This 
was  a  machine  for  cleaning  cotton  and  it  was  of- 
fered by  a  young  Yankee  schoolmaster,  temporarily 
sojourning  in  the  South. 


CHAPTER  II 

Ell  WHITNEY  AND  THE   COTTON   GIN 

THE  cotton  industry  is  one  of  the  most  ancient. 
One  or  more  of  the  many  species  of  the  cotton  plant 
is  indigenous  to  four  continents,  Asia,  Africa,  and 
the  Americas,  and  the  manufacture  of  the  fiber 
into  yarn  and  cloth  seems  to  have  developed  in- 
dependently in  each  of  them.  We  find  mention  of 
cotton  in  India  fifteen  hundred  years  before  Christ. 
The  East  Indians,  with  only  the  crudest  ma- 
chinery, spun  yarn  and  wove  cloth  as  diaphanous 
as  the  best  appliances  of  the  present  day  have  been 
able  to  produce. 

Alexander  the  Great  introduced  the  "vegetable 
wool"  into  Europe.  The  fable  of  the  "vegetable 
lamb  of  Tartary  "  persisted  almost  down  to  modern 
times.  The  Moors  cultivated  cotton  in  Spain  on 
an  extensive  scale,  but  after  their  expulsion  the 
industry  languished.  The  East  India  Company 
imported  cotton  fabrics  into  England  early  in  the 


ELI  WHITNEY  AND  THE  COTTON  GIN  33 

seventeenth  century,  and  these  fabrics  made  their 
way  in  spite  of  the  bitter  opposition  of  the  woolen 
interests,  which  were  at  times  strong  enough  to 
have  the  use  of  cotton  cloth  prohibited  by  law. 
But  when  the  Manchester  spinners  took  up  the 
manufacture  of  cotton,  the  fight  was  won.  The 
Manchester  spinners,  however,  used  linen  for  their 
warp  threads,  for  without  machinery  they  could 
not  spin  threads  sufficiently  strong  from  the 
short-fibered  Indian  cotton. 

In  the  New  World  the  Spanish  explorers  found 
cotton  and  cotton  fabrics  in  use  everywhere.  Co- 
lumbus, Cortes,  Pizarro,  Magellan,  and  others 
speak  of  the  various  uses  to  which  the  fiber  was 
put,  and  admired  the  striped  awnings  and  the 
colored  mantles  made  by  the  natives.  It  seems 
probable  that  cotton  was  in  use  in  the  New  World 
quite  as  early  as  in  India. 

The  first  English  settlers  in  America  found  little 
or  no  cotton  among  the  natives.  But  they  soon 
began  to  import  the  fiber  from  the  West  Indies, 
whence  came  also  the  plant  itself  into  the  congenial 
soil  and  climate  of  the  Southern  colonies.  During 
the  colonial  period,  however,  cotton  never  became 
the  leading  crop,  hardly  an  important  crop.  Cot- 
ton could  be  grown  profitably  only  where  there 


34  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

was  an  abundant  supply  of  exceedingly  cheap 
labor,  and  labor  in  America,  white  or  black,  was 
never  and  could  never  be  as  cheap  as  in  India. 
American  slaves  could  be  much  more  profitably 
employed  in  the  cultivation  of  rice  and  indigo. 

Three  varieties  of  the  cotton  plant  were  grown 
in  the  South.  Two  kinds  of  the  black-seed  or  long- 
staple  variety  thrived  in  the  sea-islands  and  along 
the  coast  from  Delaware  to  Georgia,  but  only  the 
hardier  and  more  prolific  green-seed  or  short-staple 
cotton  could  be  raised  inland.  The  labor  of  cul- 
tivating and  harvesting  cotton  of  any  kind  was 
very  great.  The  fiber,  growing  in  bolls  resembling 
a  walnut  in  size  and  shape,  had  to  be  taken  by  hand 
from  every  boll,  as  it  has  to  be  today,  for  no  satis- 
factory cotton  harvester  has  yet  been  invented. 
But  in  the  case  of  the  green-seed  or  upland  cotton, 
the  only  kind  which  could  ever  be  cultivated  ex- 
tensively in  the  South,  there  was  another  and  more 
serious  obstacle  in  the  way,  namely,  the  difficulty 
of  separating  the  fiber  from  the  seeds.  No  machine 
yet  devised  could  perform  this  tedious  and  un- 
profitable task.  For  the  black-seed  or  sea-island 
cotton,  the  churJca,  or  roller  gin,  used  in  India  from 
time  immemorial,  drawing  the  fiber  slowly  between 
a  pah-  of  rollers  to  push  out  the  seeds,  did  the  work 


ELI  WHITNEY  AND  THE  COTTON  GIN  35 

imperfectly,  but  this  churka  was  entirely  useless 
for  the  green-seed  variety,  the  fiber  of  which  clung 
closely  to  the  seed  and  would  yield  only  to  human 
hands.  The  quickest  and  most  skillful  pair  of 
hands  could  separate  only  a  pound  or  two  of  lint 
from  its  three  pounds  of  seeds  in  an  ordinary  work- 
ing day.  Usually  the  task  was  taken  up  at  the  end 
of  the  day,  when  the  other  work  was  done.  The 
slaves  sat  round  an  overseer  who  shook  the  dozing 
and  nudged  the  slow.  It  was  also  the  regular  task 
for  a  rainy  day.  It  is  not  surprising,  then,  that 
cotton  was  scarce,  that  flax  and  wool  in  that  day 
were  the  usual  textiles,  that  in  1783  wool  furnished 
about  seventy-seven  per  cent,  flax  about  eighteen 
per  cent,  and  cotton  only  about  five  per  cent 
of  the  clothing  of  the  people  of  Europe  and  the 
United  States. 

That  series  of  inventions  designed  for  the  manu- 
facture of  cloth,  and  destined  to  transform  Great 
Britain,  the  whole  world,  in  fact,  was  already  com- 
pleted in  Franklin's  time.  Beginning  with  the  fly- 
ing shuttle  of  John  Kay  in  1738,  followed  by  the 
spinning  jenny  of  James  Hargreaves  in  1764,  the 
water-frame  of  Richard  Arkwright  in  1769,  and 
the  mule  of  Samuel  Crompton  ten  years  later, 
machines  were  provided  which  could  spin  any 


36  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

quantity  of  fiber  likely  to  be  offered.  And  when, 
in  1787,  Edmund  Cartwright,  clergyman  and  poet, 
invented  the  self-acting  loom  to  which  power  might 
be  applied,  the  series  was  complete.  These  inven- 
tions, supplementing  the  steam  engine  of  James 
Watt,  made  the  Industrial  Revolution.  They 
destroyed  the  system  of  cottage  manufactures 
in  England  and  gave  birth  to  the  great  textile 
establishments  of  today. 

The  mechanism  for  the  production  of  cloth  on  a 
great  scale  was  provided,  if  only  the  raw  material 
could  be  found. 

The  romance  of  cotton  begins  on  a  New  England 
farm.  It  was  on  a  farm  in  the  town  (township)  of 
Westboro,  in  Worcester  County,  Massachusetts, 
hi  the  year  1765,  that  Eli  Whitney,  inventor  of 
the  cotton  gin,  was  born.  Eli's  father  was  a  man 
of  substance  and  standing  in  the  community,  a 
mechanic  as  well  as  a  farmer,  who  occupied  his 
leisure  hi  making  articles  for  his  neighbors.  We 
are  told  that  young  Eli  displayed  a  passion  for 
tools  almost  as  soon  as  he  could  walk,  that  he  made 
a  violin  at  the  age  of  twelve  and  about  the  same 
time  took  his  father's  watch  to  pieces  surrepti- 
tiously and  succeeded  in  putting  it  together  again 
so  successfully  as  to  escape  detection.  He  was  able 


ELI  WHITNEY  AND  THE  COTTON  GIN  37 

to  make  a  table  knife  to  match  the  others  of  a 
broken  set.  As  a  boy  of  fifteen  or  sixteen,  during 
the  War  of  Independence,  he  was  supplying  the 
neighborhood  with  hand-made  nails  and  various 
other  articles.  Though  he  had  not  been  a  par- 
ticularly apt  pupil  in  the  schools,  he  conceived  the 
ambition  of  attending  college;  and  so,  after  teach- 
ing several  winters  in  rural  schools,  he  went  to  Yale. 
He  appears  to  have  paid  his  own  way  through 
college  by  the  exercise  of  his  mechanical  talents. 
He  is  said  to  have  mended  for  the  college  some  im- 
ported apparatus  which  otherwise  would  have  had 
to  go  to  the  old  country  for  repairs.  "There  was  a 
good  mechanic  spoiled  when  you  came  to  college, " 
he  was  told  by  a  carpenter  in  the  town.  There  was 
no  "Sheff  "  at  Yale  in  those  days  to  give  young  men 
like  Whitney  scientific  instruction;  so,  defying  the 
bent  of  his  abilities,  Eli  went  on  with  his  academic 
studies,  graduated  in  1792,  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
seven,  and  decided  to  be  a  teacher  or  perhaps 
a  lawyer. 

Like  so  many  young  New  Englanders  of  the 
time,  Whitney  sought  employment  in  the  South. 
Having  received  the  promise  of  a  position  in  South 
Carolina,  he  embarked  at  New  York,  soon  after 
his  graduation,  on  a  sailing  vessel  bound  for 


38  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

Savannah.  On  board  he  met  the  widow  of  General 
Nathanael  Greene  of  Revolutionary  fame,  and  this 
lady  invited  him  to  visit  her  plantation  at  Mul- 
berry Grove,  near  Savannah.  What  happened 
then  is  best  told  by  Eli  Whitney  himself,  in  a  letter 
to  his  father,  written  at  New  Haven,  after  his  re- 
turn from  the  South  some  months  later,  though  the 
spelling  master  will  probably  send  Whitney  to  the 
foot  of  the  class: 

New  Haven,  Sept.  llth,  1793. 

...  I  went  from  N.  York  with  the  family  of  the 
late  Major  General  Greene  to  Georgia.  I  went  imme- 
diately with  the  family  to  their  Plantation  about 
twelve  miles  from  Savannah  with  an  expectation  of 
spending  four  or  five  days  and  then  proceed  into  Caro- 
lina to  take  the  school  as  I  have  mentioned  in  former 
letters.  During  this  time  I  heard  much  said  of  the 
extreme  difficulty  of  ginning  Cotton,  that  is,  seperat- 
ing  it  from  its  seeds.  There  were  a  number  of  very 
respectable  Gentlemen  at  Mrs.  Greene's  who  all  agreed 
that  if  a  machine  could  be  invented  which  would  clean 
the  cotton  with  expedition,  it  would  be  a  great  thing 
both  to  the  Country  and  to  the  inventor.  I  involun- 
tarily happened  to  be  thinking  on  the  subject  and 
struck  out  a  plan  of  a  Machine  in  my  mind,  which  I 
communicated  to  Miller  (who  is  agent  to  the  Executors 
of  Genl.  Greene  and  resides  in  the  family,  a  man  of 
respectibility  and  property),  he  was  pleased  with  the 
Plan  and  said  if  I  would  pursue  it  and  try  an  experi- 


ELI  WHITNEY  AND  THE  COTTON  GIN  39 

ment  to  see  if  it  would  answer,  he  would  be  at  the 
whole  expense,  I  should  loose  nothing  but  my  time, 
and  if  I  succeeded  we  would  share  the  profits.  Pre- 
vious to  this  I  found  I  was  like  to  be  disappointed  in 
my  school,  that  is,  instead  of  a  hundred,  I  found  I 
could  get  only  fifty  Guineas  a  year.  I  however  held 
the  refusal  of  the  school  untill  I  tried  some  experiments. 
In  about  ten  Days  I  made  a  little  model,  for  which  I 
was  offered,  if  I  would  give  up  all  right  and  title  to  it, 
a  Hundred  Guineas.  I  concluded  to  relinquish  my 
school  and  turn  my  attention  to  perfecting  the  Ma- 
chine. I  made  one  before  I  came  away  which  required 
the  labor  of  one  man  to  turn  it  and  with  which  one  man 
will  clean  ten  times  as  much  cotton  as  he  can  in  any 
other  way  before  known  and  also  cleanse  it  much  better 
than  in  the  usual  mode.  This  machine  may  be  turned 
by  water  or  with  a  horse,  with  the  greatest  ease,  and 
one  man  and  a  horse  will  do  more  than  fifty  men  with 
the  old  machines.  It  makes  the  labor  fifty  times  less, 
without  throwing  any  class  of  People  out  of  business. 
I  returned  to  the  Northward  for  the  purpose  of 
having  a  machine  made  on  a  large  scale  and  obtaining 
a  Patent  for  the  invintion.  I  went  to  Philadelphia1 
soon  after  I  arrived,  made  myself  acquainted  with  the 
steps  necessary  to  obtain  a  Patent,  took  several  of  the 
steps  and  the  Secretary  of  State  Mr.  Jefferson  agreed 
to  send  the  Pattent  to  me  as  soon  it  could  be  made  out 
—  so  that  I  apprehended  no  difficulty  in  obtaining 
the  Patent  —  Since  I  have  been  here  I  have  em- 
ployed several  workmen  in  making  machines  and  as 
soon  as  my  business  is  such  that  I  can  leave  it  a  few 

1  Then  the  national  capital. 


40  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

days,  I  shall  come  to  Westboro'.  I  think  it  is  probable 
I  shall  go  to  Philadelphia  again  before  I  come  to  West- 
boro', and  when  I  do  come  I  shall  be  able  to  stay  but 
few  days.  I  am  certain  I  can  obtain  a  patent  in  Eng- 
land. As  soon  as  I  have  got  a  Patent  in  America  I 
shall  go  with  the  machine  which  I  am  now  making,  to 
Georgia,  where  I  shall  stay  a  few  weeks  to  see  it  at 
work.  From  thence  I  expect  to  go  to  England,  where  I 
shall  probably  continue  two  or  three  years.  How 
advantageous  this  business  will  eventually  prove  to 
me,  I  cannot  say.  It  is  generally  said  by  those  who 
know  anything  about  it,  that  I  shall  make  a  Fortune 
by  it.  I  have  no  expectation  that  I  shall  make  an  in- 
dependent fortune  by  it,  but  think  I  had  better  pursue 
it  than  any  other  business  into  which  I  can  enter. 
Something  which  cannot  be  foreseen  may  frustrate  my 
expectations  and  defeat  my  Plan;  but  I  am  now  so  sure 
of  success  that  ten  thousand  dollars,  if  I  saw  the  money 
counted  out  to  me,  would  not  tempt  me  to  give  up  my 
right  and  relinquish  the  object.  I  wish  you,  sir,  not  to 
show  this  letter  nor  communicate  anything  of  its  con- 
tents to  any  body  except  My  Brothers  and  Sister,  en- 
joining it  on  them  to  keep  the  whole  a  profound  secret. 1 

The  invention,  however,  could  not  be  kept  "a 
profound  secret, "  for  knowledge  of  it  was  already 
out  in  the  cotton  country.  Whitney's  hostess, 
Mrs.  Greene,  had  shown  the  wonderful  machine  to 

'Hammond,  "Correspondence  of  Eli  Whitney,"  American 
Historical  Review,  vol.  in,  p.  99.  The  other  citations  in  this 
chapter  are  from  the  same  source,  unless  otherwise  stated. 


ELI  WHITNEY  AND  THE  COTTON  GIN  41 

some  friends,  who  soon  spread  the  glad  tidings,  and 
planters,  near  and  far,  had  come  to  Mulberry 
Grove  to  see  it.  The  machine  was  of  very  simple 
construction;  any  blacksmith  or  wheelwright, 
knowing  the  principle  of  the  design,  could  make 
one.  Even  before  Whitney  could  obtain  his  patent, 
cotton  gins  based  on  his  were  being  manufactured 
and  used. 

Whitney  received  his  patent  in  March,  1794,  and 
entered  on  his  new  work  with  enthusiasm.  His 
partner,  Phineas  Miller,  was  a  cultivated  New  Eng- 
land gentleman,  a  graduate  of  Yale  College,  who, 
like  Whitney,  had  sought  his  fortune  as  a  teacher 
in  the  South.  He  had  been  a  tutor  in  the  Greene 
household  and  on  General  Greene's  death  had 
taken  over  the  management  of  his  estates.  He 
afterwards  married  Mrs.  Greene.  The  partners 
decided  to  manufacture  the  machines  in  New 
Haven,  Whitney  to  give  his  time  to  the  production, 
Miller  to  furnish  the  capital  and  attend  to  the 
firm's  interests  in  the  South. 

At  the  outset  the  partners  blundered  seriously  in 
their  plan  for  commercializing  the  invention.  They 
planned  to  buy  seed  cotton  and  clean  it  themselves; 
also  to  clean  cotton  for  the  planters  on  the  familiar 
toll  system,  as  in  grinding  grain,  taking  a  toll  of 


42  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

one  pound  of  cotton  out  of  every  three.  "Whit- 
ney's plan  in  Georgia,"  says^a  recent  writer,  "as 
shown  by  his  letters  and  other  evidence,  was  to 
own  all  the  gins  and  gin  all  the  cotton  made  in  the 
country.  It  is  but  human  nature  that  this  sort  of 
monopoly  should  be  odious  to  any  community."1 
Miller  appears  to  have  calculated  that  the  planters 
could  afford  to  pay  for  the  use  of  the  new  invention 
about  one-half  of  all  the  profits  they  derived  from 
its  use.  An  equal  division,  between  the  owners  of 
the  invention  on  the  one  hand  and  the  cotton 
growers  on  the  other,  of  all  the  superadded  wealth 
arising  from  the  invention,  seemed  to  him  fair. 
Apparently  the  full  meaning  of  such  an  arrange- 
ment did  not  enter  his  mind.  Perhaps  Miller  and 
Whitney  did  not  see  at  first  that  the  new  inven- 
tion would  cause  a  veritable  industrial  revolution, 
or  that  the  system  they  planned,  if  it  could  be  made 
effective,  would  make  them  absolute  masters  of 
the  cotton  country,  with  the  most  stupendous 
monopoly  in  the  world.  Nor  do  they  appear  to 
have  realized  that,  considering  the  simple  construc- 
tion of  their  machine  and  the  loose  operation  of  the 
patent  law  at  that  time,  the  planters  of  the  South 
would  never  submit  to  so  great  a  tribute  as  they 

1  Tompkins,  Cotton  and  Cotton  Oil,  p.  26. 


ELI  WHITNEY  AND  THE  COTTON  GIN  43 

proposed  to  exact.  Their  attempt  in  the  first  in- 
stance to  set  up  an  unfair  monopoly  brought  them 
presently  into  a  sea  of  troubles,  which  they  never 
passed  out  of,  even  when  they  afterwards  changed 
their  tack  and  offered  to  sell  the  machines  with  a 
license,  or  a  license  alone,  at  a  reasonable  price. 

Misfortune  pursued  the  partners  from  the  be- 
ginning. Whitney  writes  to  his  father  from  New 
Haven  in  May,  1794,  that  his  machines  in  Georgia 
are  working  well,  but  that  he  apprehends  great 
difficulty  in  manufacturing  them  as  fast  as  they  are 
needed.  In  March  of  the  following  year  he  writes 
again,  saying  that  his  factory  in  New  Haven  has 
been  destroyed  by  fire:  "When  I  returned  home 
from  N.  York  I  found  my  property  all  in  ashes! 
My  shop,  all  my  tools,  material  and  work  equal  to 
twenty  finished  cotton  machines  all  gone.  The 
manner  in  which  it  took  fire  is  altogether  unac- 
countable." Besides,  the  partners  found  them- 
selves in  distress  for  lack  of  capital.  Then  word 
came  from  England  that  the  Manchester  spinners 
had  found  the  ginned  cotton  to  contain  knots,  and 
this  was  sufficient  to  start  the  rumor  throughout 
the  South  that  Whitney's  gin  injured  the  cotton 
fiber  and  that  cotton  cleaned  by  them  was  worth- 
less. It  was  two  years  before  this  ghost  was  laid. 


44  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

Meanwhile  Whitney's  patent  was  being  infringed 
on  every  hand.  "They  continue  to  clean  great 
quantities  of  cotton  with  Lyon's  Gin  and  sell  it 
advantageously  while  the  Patent  ginned  cotton  is 
run  down  as  good  for  nothing,"  writes  Miller  to 
Whitney  in  September,  1797.  Miller  and  Whitney 
brought  suits  against  the  infringers  but  they  could 
obtain  no  redress  in  the  courts. 

Whitney's  attitude  of  mind  during  these  troubles 
is  shown  in  his  letters.  He  says  the  statement  that 
his  machines  injure  the  cotton  is  false,  that  the 
source  of  the  trouble  is  bad  cotton,  which  he  ven- 
tures to  think  is  improved  fifty  per  cent  by  the  use 
of  his  gin,  and  that  it  is  absurd  to  say  that  the 
cotton  could  be  injured  in  any  way  in  the  process  of 
cleaning.  "I  think,"  he  says,  writing  to  Miller, 
"you  will  be  able  to  convince  the  candid  that  this 
is  quite  a  mistaken  notion  and  them  that  will  not 
believe  may  be  damn'd."  Again,  writing  later  to 
his  friend  Josiah  Stebbins  in  New  England:  "I 
have  a  set  of  the  most  Depraved  villains  to  combat 
and  I  might  almost  as  well  go  to  Hell  in  search  of 
Happiness  as  apply  to  a  Georgia  Court  for  Justice." 
And  again:  "You  know  I  always  believed  in  the 
'  Depravity  of  human  nature.'  I  thought  I  was  long 
ago  sufficiently  '  grounded  and  stablished '  in  this 


ELI  WHITNEY  AND  THE  COTTON  GIN  45 

Doctrine.  But  God  Almighty  is  continually  pour- 
ing down  cataracts  of  testimony  upon  me  to  con- 
vince me  of  this  fact.  'Lord  I  believe,  help  thou,' 
not  'mine  unbelief,'  but  me  to  overcome  the  ras- 
cality of  mankind."  His  partner  Miller,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  inclined  to  be  more  philosophical 
and  suggests  to  Whitney  that  "we  take  the  affairs 
of  this  world  patiently  and  that  the  little  dust 
which  we  may  stir  up  about  cotton  may  after  all 
not  make  much  difference  with  our  successors  one 
hundred,  much  less  one  thousand  years  hence." 
Miller,  however,  finally  concluded  that,  "the  pros- 
pect of  making  anything  by  ginning  in  this  State 
[Georgia]  is  at  an  end.  Surreptitious  gins  are  being 
erected  in  every  part  of  the  country;  and  the  jury- 
men at  Augusta  have  come  to  an  understanding 
among  themselves,  that  they  will  never  give  a 
verdict  in  our  favor,  let  the  merits  of  the  case  be 
as  they  may."1 

Miller  and  Whitney  were  somewhat  more  for- 
tunate in  other  States  than  in  Georgia  though  they 
nowhere  received  from  the  cotton  gin  enough  to 
compensate  them  for  their  time  and  trouble  nor 
more  than  a  pitiable  fraction  of  the  great  value  of 
their  invention.  South  Carolina,  ha  1801,  voted 

1  Cited  in  Roe,  English  and  American  Tool  Builders,  p.  153. 


46  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

them  fifty  thousand  dollars  for  their  patent  rights, 
twenty  thousand  dollars  to  be  paid  down  and  the 
remainder  in  three  annual  payments  of  ten  thou- 
sand dollars  each.  "We  get  but  a  song  for  it," 
wrote  Whitney,  "in  comparison  with  the  worth  of 
the  thing,  but  it  is  securing  something."  Why  the 
partners  were  willing  to  take  so  small  a  sum  was 
later  explained  by  Miller.  They  valued  the  rights 
for  South  Carolina  at  two  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars, but,  since  the  patent  law  was  being  infringed 
with  impunity,  they  were  willing  to  take  half  that 
amount;  "and  had  flattered  themselves,"  wrote 
Miller,  "that  a  sense  of  dignity  and  justice  on  the 
part  of  that  honorable  body  [the  Legislature]  would 
not  have  countenanced  an  offer  of  a  less  sum  than 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  Finding  themselves, 
however,  to  be  mistaken  in  this  opinion,  and  enter- 
taining a  belief  that  the  failure  of  such  negotiation, 
after  it  commenced,  would  have  a  tendency  to 
diminish  the  prospect,  already  doubtful,  of  enforc- 
ing the  Patent  Law,  it  was  concluded  to  be  best 
under  existing  circumstances  to  accept  the  very  in- 
adequate sum  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  offered  by 
the  Legislature  and  thereby  relinquish  and  entire- 
ly abandon  three-fourths  of  the  actual  value  of 
the  property." 


ELI  WHITNEY  AND  THE  COTTON  GIN  47 

But  even  the  fifty  thousand  dollars  was  not 
collected  without  difficulty.  South  Carolina  sus- 
pended the  contract,  after  paying  twenty  thousand 
dollars,  and  sued  Miller  and  Whitney  for  recovery 
of  the  sum  paid,  on  the  ground  that  the  partners 
had  not  complied  with  the  conditions.  Whitney 
succeeded,  in  1805,  in  getting  the  Legislature  to 
reinstate  the  contract  and  pay  him  the  remainder 
of  the  money.  Miller,  discouraged  and  broken  by 
the  long  struggle,  had  died  in  the  meantime. 

The  following  passage  from  a  letter  written  by 
Whitney  in  February,  1805,  to  Josiah  Stebbins, 
gives  Whitney's  views  as  to  the  treatment  he 
had  received  at  the  hands  of  the  authorities.  He 
is  writing  from  the  residence  of  a  friend  near 
Orangeburg,  South  Carolina. 

The  principal  object  of  my  present  excursion  to  this 
Country  was  to  get  this  business  set  right;  which  I 
have  so  far  effected  as  to  induce  the  Legislature  of  this 
State  to  recind  all  their  former  Suspending  Laws  and 
resolutions,  to  agree  once  more  to  pay  the  sum  of 
30,000  Dollars  which  was  due  and  make  the  necessary 
appropriations  for  that  purpose.  I  have  as  yet  how- 
ever obtained  but  a  small  part  of  this  payment.  The 
residue  is  promised  me  in  July  next.  Thus  you  see  my 
recompense  of  reward  is  as  the  land  of  Canaan  was  to 
the  Jews,  resting  a  long  while  in  promise.  If  the 
Nations  with  whom  I  have  to  contend  are  not  as 


48  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

numerous  as  those  opposed  to  the  Israelites,  they  are 
certainly  much  greater  Heathens,  having  their  hearts 
hardened  and  their  understanding  blinded,  to  make, 
propagate  and  believe  all  manner  of  lies.  Verily, 
Stebbins,  I  have  had  much  vexation  of  spirit  in  this 
business.  I  shall  spend  forty  thousand  dollars  to  ob- 
tain thirty,  and  it  will  all  end  in  vanity  at  last.  A 
contract  had  been  made  with  the  State  of  Tennessee 
which  now  hangs  suspended.  Two  attempts  have  been 
made  to  induce  the  State  of  No.  Carolina  to  recind 
their  Contract,  neither  of  which  have  succeeded.  Thus 
you  see  Brother  Steb.  Sovreign  and  Independent 
States  warped  by  interest  will  be  rogues  and  misled  by 
Demagogues  will  be  fools.  They  have  spent  much 
time,  money  and  Credit,  to  avoid  giving  me  a  small 
compensation, for  that  which  to  them  is  worth  millions. 

Meanwhile  North  Carolina  had  agreed  to  buy 
the  rights  for  the  State  on  terms  that  yielded  Whit- 
ney about  thirty  thousand  dollars,  and  it  is  es- 
timated that  he  received  about  ten  thousand  dol- 
lars from  Tennessee,  making  his  receipts  in  all 
about  ninety  thousand  dollars,  before  deducting 
costs  of  litigation  and  other  losses.  The  cotton  gin 
was  not  profitable  to  its  inventor.  And  yet  no  in- 
vention in  history  ever  so  suddenly  transformed 
an  industry  and  created  enormous  wealth.  Eight 
years  before  Whitney's  invention,  eight  bales  of 
cotton,  landed  at  Liverpool,  were  seized  on  the 


ELI  WHITNEY  AND  THE  COTTON  GIN  49 

ground  that  so  large  a  quantity  of  cotton  could  not 
have  been  produced  in  the  United  States.  The 
year  before  that  invention  the  United  States  ex- 
ported less  than  one  hundred  and  forty  thousand 
pounds  of  cotton;  the  year  after  it,  nearly  half  a 
million  pounds;  the  next  year  over  a  million  and  a 
half;  a  year  later  still,  over  six  million;  by  1800, 
nearly  eighteen  million  pounds  a  year.  And  by 
1845  the  United  States  was  producing  seven- 
eighths  of  the  world's  cotton.  Today  the  United 
States  produces  six  to  eight  billion  pounds  of  cot- 
ton annually,  and  ninety-nine  per  cent  of  this  is 
the  upland  or  green-seed  cotton,  which  is  cleaned 
on  the  Whitney  type  of  gin  and  was  first  made 
commercially  available  by  Whitney's  invention. z 

More  than  half  of  this  enormous  crop  is  still 
exported  in  spite  of  the  great  demand  at  home. 
Cotton  became  and  has  continued  to  be  the  great- 
est single  export  of  the  United  States.  In  ordi- 
nary years  its  value  is  greater  than  the  combined 
value  of  the  three  next  largest  exports.  It  is  on 
cotton  that  the  United  States  has  depended  for  the 
payment  of  its  trade  balance  to  Europe. 

Other  momentous  results  followed  on  the  inven- 
tion of  the  cotton  gin.  In  1793  slavery  seemed  a 

'Roe.  English  and  American  Tool  Builders,  pp.  150-51. 

4 


50  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

dying  institution,  North  and  South.  Conditions 
of  soil  and  climate  made  slavery  unprofitable  in  the 
North.  On  many  of  the  indigo,  rice,  and  tobacco 
plantations  in  the  South  there  were  more  slaves 
than  could  be  profitably  employed,  and  many 
planters  were  thinking  of  emancipating  their  slaves, 
when  along  came  this  simple  but  wonderful  ma- 
chine and  with  it  the  vision  of  great  riches  in  cotton ; 
for  while  slaves  could  not  earn  their  keep  separat- 
ing the  cotton  from  its  seeds  by  hand,  they  could 
earn  enormous  profits  in  the  fields,  once  the  diffi- 
culty of  extracting  the  seeds  was  solved.  Slaves 
were  no  longer  a  liability  but  an  asset.  The  price 
of  "field  hands"  rose,  and  continued  to  rise.  If 
the  worn-out  lands  of  the  seaboard  no  longer 
afforded  opportunity  for  profitable  employment, 
the  rich  new  lands  of  the  Southwest  called  for 
laborers,  and  yet  more  laborers.  Taking  slaves 
with  them,  younger  sons  pushed  out  into  the  wilder- 
ness, became  possessed  of  great  tracts  of  fertile 
land,  and  built  up  larger  plantations  than  those 
upon  which  they  had  been  born.  Cotton  became 
King  of  the  South. 

The  supposed  economic  necessity  of  slave  labor 
led  great  men  to  defend  slavery,  and  politics  in  the 
South  became  largely  the  defense  of  slavery  against 


ELI  WHITNEY  AND  THE  COTTON  GIN  51 

the  aggression,  real  or  fancied,  of  the  free  North. 
The  rift  between  the  sections  became  a  chasm. 
Then  came  the  War  of  Secession. 

Though  Miller  was  dead,  Whitney  carried  on 
the  fight  for  his  rights  in  Georgia.  His  difficulties 
were  increased  by  a  patent  which  the  Government 
at  Philadelphia  issued  in  May,  1796,  to  Hogden 
Holmes,  a  mechanic  of  Augusta,  for  an  improve- 
ment in  the  cotton  gin.  The  Holmes  machines 
were  soon  in  common  use,  and  it  was  against  the 
users  of  these  that  many  of  the  suits  for  infringe- 
ment were  brought.  Suit  after  suit  ran  its  course 
in  the  Georgia  courts,  without  a  single  decision 
in  the  inventor's  favor.  At  length,  however, 
in  December,  1806,  the  validity  of  Whitney's 
patent  was  finally  determined  by  decision  of  the 
United  States  Circuit  Court  in  Georgia.  Whit- 
ney asked  for  a  perpetual  injunction  against 
the  Holmes  machine,  and  the  court,  rinding  that 
his  invention  was  basic,  granted  him  all  that 
he  asked. 

By  this  time,  however,  the  life  of  the  patent  had 
nearly  run  its  course.  Whitney  applied  to  Con- 
gress for  a  renewal,  but,  in  spite  of  all  his  argu- 
ments and  a  favorable  committee  report,  the  op- 
position from  the  cotton  States  proved  too  strong, 


52  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

and  his  application  was  denied.  Whitney  now  had 
other  interests.  He  was  a  great  manufacturer  of 
firearms,  at  New  Haven,  and  as  such  we  shall  meet 
him  again  in  a  later  chapter. 


CHAPTER  IH 

STEAM   IN   CAPTIVITY 

FOR  the  beginnings  of  the  enslavement  of  steam, 
that  mighty  giant  whose  work  has  changed  the 
world  we  live  in,  we  must  return  to  the  times  of 
Benjamin  Franklin.  James  Watt,  the  accredited 
father  of  the  modern  steam  engine,  was  a  con- 
temporary of  Franklin,  and  his  engine  was  twenty- 
one  years  old  when  Franklin  died.  The  discovery 
that  steam  could  be  harnessed  and  made  to  work 
is  not,  of  course,  credited  to  James  Watt.  The 
precise  origin  of  that  discovery  is  unknown.  The 
ancient  Greeks  had  steam  engines  of  a  sort,  and 
steam  engines  of  another  sort  were  pumping  water 
out  of  mines  in  England  when  James  Watt  was 
born.  James  Watt,  however,  invented  and  applied 
the  first  effective  means  by  which  steam  came  to 
serve  mankind.  And  so  the  modern  steam  engine 
begins  with  him. 

The  story  is  old,  of  how  this  Scottish  boy,  James 

53 


54  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

Watt,  sat  on  the  hearth  in  his  mother's  cottage, 
intently  watching  the  steam  rising  from  the  mouth 
of  the  tea  kettle,  and  of  the  great  role  which  this 
boy  afterwards  assumed  in  the  mechanical  world. 
It  was  in  1763,  when  he  was  twenty-eight  and 
had  the  appointment  of  mathematical-instrument 
maker  to  the  University  of  Glasgow,  that  a  model 
of  Newcomen's  steam  pumping  engine  was  brought 
into  his  shop  for  repairs.  One  can  perhaps  imagine 
the  feelings  with  which  James  Watt,  interested 
from  his  youth  in  mechanical  and  scientific  instru- 
ments, particularly  those  which  dealt  with  steam, 
regarded  this  Newcomen  engine.  Now  his  interest 
was  vastly  quickened.  He  set  up  the  model  and 
operated  it,  noticed  how  the  alternate  heating  and 
cooling  of  its  cylinder  wasted  power,  and  concluded, 
after  some  weeks  of  experiment,  that,  in  order  to 
make  the  engine  practicable,  the  cylinder  must  be 
kept  hot,  "always  as  hot  as  the  steam  which  en- 
tered it."  Yet  in  order  to  condense  the  steam  there 
must  be  a  cooling  of  the  vessel.  The  problem  was 
to  reconcile  these  two  conditions. 

At  length  the  pregnant  idea  occurred  to  him 
—  the  idea  of  the  separate  condenser.  It  came 
to  him  on  a  Sunday  afternoon  in  1765,  as  he 
walked  across  Glasgow  Green.  If  the  steam  were 


STEAM  IN  CAPTIVITY  55 

condensed  in  a  vessel  separate  from  the  cylinder, 
it  would  be  quite  possible  to  keep  the  condensing 
vessel  cool  and  the  cylinder  hot  at  the  same  time. 
Next  morning  Watt  began  to  put  his  scheme  to  the 
test  and  found  it  practicable.  He  developed  other 
ideas  and  applied  them.  So  at  last  was  born  a 
steam  engine  that  would  work  and  multiply  man's 
energies  a  thousandfold. 

After  one  or  two  disastrous  business  experiences, 
such  as  fall  to  the  lot  of  many  great  inventors, 
perhaps  to  test  their  perseverance,  Watt  associated 
himself  with  Matthew  Boulton,  a  man  of  capital 
and  of  enterprise,  owner  of  the  Soho  Engineering 
Works,  near  Birmingham.  The  firm  of  Boulton 
and  Watt  became  famous,  and  James  Watt  lived 
till  August  19, 1819  —  lived  to  see  his  steam  engine 
the  greatest  single  factor  in  the  new  industrial  era 
that  had  dawned  for  English-speaking  folk. 

Boulton  and  Watt,  however,  though  they  were 
the  pioneers,  were  by  no  means  alone  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  steam  engine.  Soon  there  were 
rivals  in  the  field  with  new  types  of  engines.  One 
of  these  was  Richard  Trevithick  in  England;  an- 
other was  Oliver  Evans  of  Philadelphia.  Both 
Trevithick  and  Evans  invented  the  high-pressure 
engine.  Evans  appears  to  have  applied  the  high- 


56  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

pressure  principle  before  Trevithick,  and  it  has 
been  said  that  Trevithick  borrowed  it  from  Evans, 
but  Evans  himself  never  said  so,  and  it  is  more 
likely  that  each  of  these  inventors  worked  it  out 
independently.  Watt  introduced  his  steam  to  the 
cylinder  at  only  slightly  more  than  atmospheric 
pressure  and  clung  tenaciously  to  the  low-pressure 
theory  all  his  life.  Boulton  and  Watt,  indeed, 
aroused  by  Trevithick's  experiments  in  high-pres- 
sure engines,  sought  to  have  Parliament  pass  an 
act  forbidding  high  pressure  on  the  ground  that  the 
lives  of  the  public  were  endangered.  Watt  lived 
long  enough,  however,  to  see  the  high-pressure 
steam  engine  come  into  general  favor,  not  only  in 
America  but  even  in  his  own  conservative  country. 
Less  sudden,  less  dramatic,  than  that  of  the 
cotton  gin,  was  the  entrance  of  the  steam  engine 
on  the  American  industrial  stage,  but  not  less 
momentous.  The  actions  and  reactions  of  steam 
in  America  provide  the  theme  for  an  Iliad  which 
some  American  Homer  may  one  day  write.  They 
include  the  epic  of  the  coal  in  the  Pennsylvania 
hills,  the  epic  of  the  ore,  the  epic  of  the  railroad, 
the  epic  of  the  great  city;  and,  in  general,  the  sub- 
jugation of  a  continental  wilderness  to  the  service 
of  a  vast  civilization. 


STEAM  IN  CAPTIVITY  57 

The  vital  need  of  better  transportation  was 
uppermost  in  the  thoughts  of  many  Americans. 
It  was  seen  that  there  could  be  no  national  unity 
in  a  country  so  far  flung  without  means  of  easy 
intercourse  between  one  group  of  Americans  and 
another.  The  highroads  of  the  new  country  were, 
for  the  most  part,  difficult  even  for  the  man  on 
horseback,  and  worse  for  those  who  must  travel  by 
coach  or  post-chaise.  Inland  from  the  coast  and 
away  from  the  great  rivers  there  were  no  roads  of 
any  sort ;  nothing  but  trails.  Highways  were  essen- 
tial, not  only  for  the  permanent  unity  of  the  United 
States,  but  to  make  available  the  wonderful  riches 
of  the  inland  country,  across  the  Appalachian 
barrier  and  around  the  Great  Lakes,  into  which 
American  pioneers  had  already  made  their  way. 

Those  immemorial  pathways,  the  great  rivers, 
were  the  main  avenues  of  traffic  with  the  interior. 
So,  of  course,  when  men  thought  of  improving 
transportation,  they  had  in  mind  chiefly  transpor- 
tation by  water;  and  that  is  why  the  earliest  efforts 
of  American  inventors  were  applied  to  the  means 
of  improving  traffic  and  travel  by  water  and  not 
by  land. 

The  first  men  to  spend  their  time  in  trying  to 
apply  steam  power  to  the  propulsion  of  a  boat  were 


58  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

contemporaries  of  Benjamin  Franklin.  Those  who 
worked  without  Watt's  engine  could  hardly  suc- 
ceed. One  of  the  earliest  of  these  was  William 
Henry  of  Pennsylvania.  Henry,  in  1763,  had  the 
idea  of  applying  power  to  paddle  wheels,  and  con- 
structed a  boat,  but  his  boat  sank,  and  no  result 
followed,  unless  it  may  be  that  John  Fitch  and 
Robert  Fulton,  both  of  whom  were  visitors  at 
Henry's  house,  received  some  suggestions  from 
him.  James  Rumsey  of  Maryland  began  experi- 
ments as  early  as  1774  and  by  1786  had  a  boat  that 
made  four  miles  an  hour  against  the  current  of 
the  Potomac. 

The  most  interesting  of  these  early  and  unsuc- 
cessful inventors  is  John  Fitch,  who  was  a  Connec- 
ticut clockmaker  living  in  Philadelphia.  He  was 
eccentric  and  irregular  in  his  habits  and  quite  igno- 
rant of  the  steam  engine.  But  he  conceived  the 
idea  of  a  steamboat  and  set  to  work  to  make  one. 
The  record  of  Fitch's  life  is  something  of  a  tragedy. 
At  the  best  he  was  an  unhappy  man  and  was 
always  close  to  poverty.  As  a  young  man  he  had 
left  his  family  because  of  unhappy  domestic  rela- 
tions with  his  wife.  One  may  find  in  the  record  of 
his  undertakings  which  he  left  in  the  Philadelphia 
Library,  to  be  opened  thirty  years  after  its  receipt, 


STEAM  IN  CAPTIVITY  59 

these  words:  "I  know  of  nothing  so  perplexing 
and  vexatious  to  a  man  of  feelings  as  a  turbulent 
Wife  and  Steamboat  building."  But  in  spite  of  all 
his  difficulties  Fitch  produced  a  steamboat,  which 
plied  regularly  on  the  Delaware  for  several  years 
and  carried  passengers.  "We  reigned  Lord  High 
Admirals  of  the  Delaware;  and  no  other  boat  in  the 
River  could  hold  its  way  with  us,"  he  wrote. 
"Thus  has  been  effected  by  little  Johnny  Fitch  and 
Harry  Voight  [one  of  his  associates]  one  of  the 
greatest  and  most  useful  arts  that  has  ever  been 
introduced  into  the  world;  and  although  the  world 
and  my  country  does  not  thank  me  for  it,  yet  it 
gives  me  heartfelt  satisfaction."  The  "Lord  High 
Admirals  of  the  Delaware,"  however,  did  not 
reign  long.  The  steamboat  needed  improvement 
to  make  it  pay;  its  backers  lost  patience  and  faith, 
and  the  inventor  gave  up  the  fight  and  retired  into 
the  fastnesses  of  the  Kentucky  wilderness,  where 
he  died. 

The  next  inventor  to  struggle  with  the  problem 
of  the  steamboat,  with  any  approach  to  success, 
was  John  Stevens  of  Hoboken.  His  life  was  cast 
in  a  vastly  different  environment  from  that  of 
John  Fitch.  He  was  a  rich  man,  a  man  of  family 
and  of  influence.  His  father's  house — afterwards 


60  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

his  own  —  at  7  Broadway,  facing  Bowling  Green 
—  was  one  of  the  mansions  of  early  New  York,  and 
his  own  summer  residence  on  Castle  Point,  Ho- 
boken,  just  across  the  Hudson,  was  one  of  the  land- 
marks of  the  great  river.  For  many  years  John 
Stevens  crossed  that  river;  most  often  in  an  open 
boat  propelled  by  sail  or  by  men  at  the  oars. 
Being  naturally  of  a  mechanical  turn,  he  sought  to 
make  the  crossing  easier.  To  his  library  were 
coming  the  prints  that  told  of  James  Watt  and  the 
steam  engine  in  England,  and  John  Fitch's  boat 
had  interested  him. 

Robert  Fulton's  Clermont,  of  which  we  shall 
speak  presently,  was  undoubtedly  the  pioneer  of 
practicable  steamboats.  But  the  Phoenix,  built  by 
John  Stevens,  followed  close  on  the  Clermont. 
And  its  engines  were  built  in  America,  while  those 
of  the  Clermont  had  been  imported  from  England. 
Moreover,  in  June,  1808,  the  Phoenix  stood  to  sea, 
and  made  the  first  ocean  voyage  in  the  history  of 
steam  navigation.  Because  of  a  monopoly  of  the 
Hudson,  which  the  New  York  Legislature  had 
granted  to  Livingston  and  Fulton,  Stevens  was 
compelled  to  send  his  ship  to  the  Delaware.  Hence 
the  trip  out  into  the  waters  of  the  Atlantic,  a  jour- 
ney that  was  not  undertaken  without  trepidation. 


STEAM  IN  CAPTIVITY  61 

But,  despite  the  fact  that  a  great  storm  arose,  the 
Phoenix  made  the  trip  in  safety;  and  continued  for 
many  years  thereafter  to  ply  the  Delaware  between 
Philadelphia  and  Trenton. 

Robert  Fulton,  like  many  and  many  another 
great  inventor,  from  Leonardo  da  Vinci  down  to 
the  present  time,  was  also  an  artist.  He  was  born 
November  14,  1765,  at  Little  Britain,  Lancaster 
County,  Pennsylvania,  of  that  stock  which  is  so 
often  miscalled  "Scotch-Irish."  He  was  only  a 
child  when  his  father  died,  leaving  behind  him  a 
son  who  seems  to  have  been  much  more  interested 
in  his  own  ideas  than  in  his  schoolbooks.  Even  in 
his  childhood  Robert  showed  his  mechanical  abil- 
ity. There  was  a  firm  of  noted  gunsmiths  in  Lan- 
caster, in  whose  shops  he  made  himself  at  home 
and  became  expert  in  the  use  of  tools.  At  the  age 
of  fourteen  he  applied  his  ingenuity  to  a  heavy  fish- 
ing boat  and  equipped  it  with  paddle-wheels,  which 
were  turned  by  a  crank,  thus  greatly  lightening  the 
labor  of  moving  it. 

At  the  age  of  seventeen  young  Fulton  moved  to 
Philadelphia  and  set  up  as  a  portrait  painter. 
Some  of  the  miniatures  which  he  painted  at  this 
time  are  said  to  be  very  good.  He  worked  hard, 
made  many  good  friends,  including  Benjamin 


62  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

Franklin,  and  succeeded  financially.  He  deter- 
mined to  go  to  Europe  to  study  —  if  possible  under 
his  fellow  Pennsylvanian,  Benjamin  West,  then 
rising  into  fame  in  London.  The  West  and  the 
Fulton  families  had  been  intimate,  and  Fulton 
hoped  that  West  would  take  him  as  a  pupil.  First 
buying  a  farm  for  his  mother  with  a  part  of  his 
savings,  he  sailed  for  England  in  1786,  with  forty 
guineas  in  his  pocket.  West  received  him  not  only 
as  a  pupil  but  as  a  guest  in  his  house  and  intro- 
duced him  to  many  of  his  friends.  Again  Fulton 
succeeded,  and  in  1791  two  of  his  portraits  were 
exhibited  at  the  Royal  Academy,  and  the  Royal 
Society  of  British  Artists  hung  four  paintings 
by  him. 

Then  came  the  commission  which  changed  the 
course  of  Fulton's  life.  His  work  had  attracted  the 
notice  of  Viscount  Courtenay,  later  Earl  of  Devon, 
and  he  was  invited  to  Devonshire  to  paint  that 
nobleman's  portrait.  Here  he  met  Francis,  third 
Duke  of  Bridgewater,  the  father  of  the  English 
canal  system,  and  his  hardly  less  famous  engineer, 
James  Brindley,  and  also  Earl  Stanhope,  a  restless, 
inquiring  spirit.  Fulton  the  mechanic  presently 
began  to  dominate  Fulton  the  artist.  He  studied 
canals,  invented  a  means  of  sawing  marble  in  the 


STEAM  IN  CAPTIVITY  63 

quarries,  improved  the  wheel  for  spinning  flax, 
invented  a  machine  for  making  rope,  and  a  method 
of  raising  canal  boats  by  inclined  planes  instead  of 
locks.  What  money  he  made  from  these  inven- 
tions we  do  not  know,  but  somewhat  later  (1796)  he 
speaks  hopefully  of  an  improvement  in  tanning. 
This  same  year  he  published  a  pamphlet  entitled 
A  Treatise  on  the  Improvement  of  Canal  Naviga- 
tion, copies  of  which  were  sent  to  Napoleon  and 
President  Washington. 

Fulton  went  to  France  in  1797.  To  earn  money 
he  painted  several  portraits  and  a  panorama  of  the 
Burning  of  Moscow.  This  panorama,  covering  the 
walls  of  a  circular  hall  built  especially  for  it,  be- 
came very  popular,  and  Fulton  painted  another. 
In  Paris  he  formed  a  warm  friendship  with  that 
singular  American,  Joel  Barlow,  soldier,  poet,  specu- 
lator, and  diplomatist,  and  his  wife,  and  for  seven 
years  lived  in  their  house. 

The  long  and  complicated  story  of  Fulton's 
sudden  interest  in  torpedoes  and  submarine  boats, 
his  dealings  with  the  Directory  and  Napoleon  and 
with  the  British  Admiralty  does  not  belong  here. 
His  experiments  and  his  negotiations  with  the 
two  Governments  occupied  the  greater  part  of  his 
time  for  the  years  between  1797  and  1806.  His 


64  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

expressed  purpose  was  to  make  an  engine  of  war  so 
terrible  that  war  would  automatically  be  abolished. 
The  world,  however,  was  not  ready  for  diving  boats 
and  torpedoes,  nor  yet  for  the  end  of  war,  and  his 
efforts  had  no  tangible  results.1 

During  all  the  years  after  1793,  at  least,  and  per- 
haps earlier,  the  idea  of  the  steamboat  had  seldom 
been  out  of  his  mind,  but  lack  of  funds  and  the 
greater  urgency,  as  he  thought,  of  the  submarine 
prevented  him  from  working  seriously  upon  it. 
In  1801,  however,  Robert  R.  Livingston  came  to 
France  as  American  Minister.  Livingston  had 
already  made  some  unsuccessful  experiments  with 
the  steamboat  in  the  United  States,  and,  in  1798, 
had  received  the  monopoly  of  steam  navigation  on 
the  waters  of  New  York  for  twenty  years,  provided 
that  he  produced  a  vessel  within  twelve  months 
able  to  steam  four  miles  an  hour.  This  grant  had, 
of  course,  been  forfeited,  but  might  be  renewed, 
Livingston  thought. 

Fulton  and  Livingston  met,  probably  at  Bar- 
low's house,  and,  in  1802,  drew  up  an  agreement  to 
construct  a  steamboat  to  ply  between  New  York 

1  The  submarine  was  the  invention  of  David  Bushnell,  a  Con- 
necticut Yankee,  whose  "American  Turtle"  blew  up  at  least  one 
British  vessel  in  the  War  of  Independence  and  created  much 
consternation  among  the  King's  ships  in  American  waters. 


'ainted  by  himself.     Original  in  the  possession  of  the  American 
Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers,  New  York. 


STEAM  IN  CAPTIVITY  65 

and  Albany.  Livingston  agreed  to  advance  five 
hundred  dollars  for  experimentation  in  Europe. 
In  this  same  year  Fulton  built  a  model  and  tested 
different  means  of  propulsion,  giving  "the  prefer- 
ence to  a  wheel  on  each  side  of  the  model."1  The 
boat  was  built  on  the  Seme,  but  proved  too  frail 
for  the  borrowed  engine.  A  second  boat  was 
tried  in  August,  1803,  and  moved,  though  at  a 
disappointingly  slow  rate  of  speed. 

Just  at  this  time  Fulton  wrote  ordering  an  engine 
from  Boulton  and  Watt  to  be  transported  to 
America.  The  order  was  at  first  refused,  as  it  was 
then  the  shortsighted  policy  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment to  maintain  a  monopoly  of  mechanical  con- 
trivances. Permission  to  export  was  given  the  next 
year,  however,  and  the  engine  was  shipped  in  1805. 
It  lay  for  some  time  in  the  New  York  Customs 
House.  Meanwhile  Fulton  had  studied  the  Watt 
engine  on  Symington's  steamboat,  the  Charlotte 
Dundas,  on  the  Forth  and  Clyde  Canal,  and 
Livingston  had  been  granted  a  renewal  of  his 
monopoly  of  the  waters  of  New  York. 

Fulton  arrived  at  New  York  in  1806  and  began 
the  construction  of  the  Clermont,  so  named  after 

1  Fulton  to  Barlow,  quoted  in  Sutcliffe,  Robert  Fulton  and  the 
Clermont.  p.  124. 
5 


66  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

Livingston's  estate  on  the  Hudson.  The  building 
was  done  on  the  East  River.  The  boat  excited  the 
jeers  of  passers-by,  who  called  it  "Fulton's  Folly." 
On  Monday,  August  17,  1807,  the  memorable  first 
voyage  was  begun.  Carrying  a  party  of  invited 
guests,  the  Clermont  steamed  off  at  one  o'clock. 
Past  the  towns  and  villages  along  the  Hudson,  the 
boat  moved  steadily,  black  smoke  rolling  from  her 
stack.  Pine  wood  was  the  fuel.  During  the  night, 
the  sparks  pouring  from  her  funnel,  the  clanking  of 
her  machinery,  and  the  splashing  of  the  paddles 
frightened  the  animals  in  the  woods  and  the  occu- 
pants of  the  scattered  houses  along  the  banks.  At 
one  o'clock  Tuesday  the  boat  arrived  at  Cler- 
mont, 110  miles  from  New  York.  After  spending 
the  night  at  Clermont,  the  voyage  was  resumed 
on  Wednesday.  Albany,  forty  miles  away,  was 
reached  in  eight  hours,  making  a  record  of  150 
miles  in  thirty-two  hours .  Returning  to  New  York, 
the  distance  was  covered  in  thirty  hours.  The 
steamboat  was  a  success. 

The  boat  was  then  laid  up  for  two  weeks  while 
the  cabins  were  boarded  in,  a  roof  built  over  the 
engine,  and  coverings  placed  over  the  paddle- 
wheels  to  catch  the  spray  —  all  under  Fulton's  eye. 
Then  the  Clermont  began  regular  trips  to  Albany, 


STEAM  IN  CAPTIVITY  67 

carrying  sometimes  a  hundred  passengers,  making 
the  round  trip  every  four  days,  and  continued  un- 
til floating  ice  marked  the  end  of  navigation  for 
the  winter. 

Why  had  Fulton  succeeded  where  others  had 
failed?  There  was  nothing  new  in  his  boat.  Every 
essential  feature  of  the  Clermont  had  been  an- 
ticipated by  one  or  other  of  the  numerous  experi- 
menters before  him.  The  answer  seems  to  be 
that  he  was  a  better  engineer  than  any  of  them. 
He  had  calculated  proportions,  and  his  hull  and 
his  engine  were  in  relation.  Then  too,  he  had 
one  of  Watt's  engines,  undoubtedly  the  best  at 
the  time,  and  the  unwavering  support  of  Robert 
Livingston. 

Fulton's  restless  mind  was  never  still,  but  he 
did  not  turn  capriciously  from  one  idea  to  another. 
Though  never  satisfied,  his  new  ideas  were  tested 
scientifically  and  the  results  carefully  written 
down.  Some  of  his  notebooks  read  almost  like 
geometrical  demonstrations;  and  his  drawings  and 
plans  were  beautifully  executed.  Before  his  death 
in  1815  he  had  constructed  or  planned  sixteen  or 
seventeen  boats,  including  boats  for  the  Hudson, 
Potomac,  and  Mississippi  rivers,  for  the  Neva  in 
Russia,  and  a  steam  vessel'of  war  for  the  United 


68  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

States.  He  was  a  member  of  the  commission  on  the 
Erie  Canal,  though  he  did  not  live  to  see  that 
enterprise  begun. 

The  mighty  influence  of  the  steamboat  in  the 
development  of  inland  America  is  told  elsewhere  in 
this  Series.1  The  steamboat  has  long  since  grown 
to  greatness,  but  it  is  well  to  remember  that  the 
true  ancestor  of  the  magnificent  leviathan  of  our 
own  day  is  the  Clermont  of  Robert  Fulton. 

The  world  today  is  on  the  eve  of  another  great 
development  in  transportation,  quite  as  revolu- 
tionary as  any  that  have  preceded.  How  soon  will 
it  take  place?  How  long  before  Kipling's  vision  in 
The  Night  Mail  becomes  a  full  reality?  How  long 
before  the  air  craft  comes  to  play  a  great  role  in 
the  world's  transportation?  We  cannot  tell.  But, 
after  looking  at  the  nearest  parallel  in  the  facts  of 
history,  each  of  us  may  make  his  own  guess.  The 
airship  appears  now  to  be  much  farther  advanced 
than  the  steamboat  was  for  many  years  after 
Robert  Fulton  died.  Already  we  have  seen  men 
ride  the  wind  above  the  sea  from  the  New  World 
to  the  Old.  Already  United  States  mails  are  regu- 
larly carried  through  the  air  from  the  Atlantic  to 

1  Archer  B.  Hulbert.  The  Paths  of  Inland  Commerce. 


STEAM  IN  CAPTIVITY  69 

the  Golden  Gate.  It  was  twelve  years  after  the 
birth  of  Fulton's  Clermont,  and  four  years  after  the 
inventor's  death,  before  any  vessel  tried  to  cross 
the  Atlantic  under  steam.  This  was  in  1819, 
when  the  sailing  packet  Savannah,  equipped  with  a 
ninety  horse-power  horizontal  engine  and  paddle- 
wheels,  crossed  from  Savannah  to  Liverpool  in 
twenty -five  days,  during  eighteen  of  which  she 
used  steam  power.  The  following  year,  however, 
the  engine  was  taken  out  of  the  craft.  And  it  was 
not  until  1833  that  a  real  steamship  crossed  the 
Atlantic.  This  time  it  was  the  Royal  William, 
which  made  a  successful  passage  from  Quebec  to 
London.  Four  years  more  passed  before  the  Great 
Western  was  launched  at  Bristol,  the  first  steamship 
to  be  especially  designed  for  transatlantic  service, 
and  the  era  of  great  steam  liners  began. 

If  steam  could  be  made  to  drive  a  boat  on  the 
water,  why  not  a  wagon  on  the  land? 

History,  seeking  origins,  often  has  difficulty 
when  it  attempts  to  discover  the  precise  origin  of 
an  idea.  "It  frequently  happens,"  said  Oliver 
Evans,  "that  two  persons,  reasoning  right  on  a 
mechanical  subject,  think  alike  and  invent  the 
same  thing  without  any  communication  with  each 


70  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

other."1  It  is  certain,  however,  that  one  of  the 
first,  if  not  the  first,  protagonist  of  the  locomotive 
in  America  was  the  same  Oliver  Evans,  a  truly 
great  inventor  for  whom  the  world  was  not  quite 
ready.  The  world  has  forgotten  him.  But  he  was 
the  first  engine  builder  in  America,  and  one  of  the 
best  of  his  day.  He  gave  to  his  countrymen  the 
high-pressure  steam  engine  and  new  machinery  for 
manufacturing  flour  that  was  not  superseded  for 
a  hundred  years. 

Evans  was  apprenticed  at  the  age  of  fourteen  to  a 
wheelwright.  He  was  a  thoughtful,  studious  boy,  who 
devoured  eagerly  the  few  books  to  which  he  had  access, 
even  by  the  light  of  a  fire  of  shavings,  when  denied  a 
candle  by  his  parsimonious  master.  He  says  that  in 
1772,  when  only  seventeen  years  old,  he  began  to  con- 
trive some  method  of  propelling  land  carriages  by 
other  means  than  animal  power;  and  that  he  thought 
of  a  variety  of  devices,  such  as  using  the  force  of  the 
wind  and  treadles  worked  by  men;  but  as  they  were 
evidently  inadequate,  was  about  to  give  up  the  prob- 
lem as  unsolvable  for  want  of  a  suitable  source  of 
power,  when  he  heard  that  some  neighboring  black- 
smith's boys  had  stopped  up  the  touch-hole  of  a  gun 
barrel,  put  in  some  water,  rammed  down  a  tight  wad, 
and,  putting  the  breech  into  the  smith's  fire,  the 
gun  had  discharged  itself  with  a  report  like  that  of 

1  Coleman  Sellers,  "Oliver  Evans  and  His  Inventions,"  Journal 
tgthe  Franklin  Institute,  July,  1886:  vol.  cxxn,  p.  16. 


STEAM  IN  CAPTIVITY  71 

gunpowder.  This  immediately  suggested  to  his  fertile 
mind  a  new  source  of  power,  and  he  labored  long  to 
apply  it,  but  without  success,  until  there  fell  into  his 
hands  a  book  describing  the  old  atmospheric  steam 
engine  of  Newcomen,  and  he  was  at  once  struck  with 
the  fact  that  steam  was  only  used  to  produce  a  vacuum 
while  to  him  it  seemed  clear  that  the  elastic  power  of 
the  steam  if  applied  directly  to  moving  the  piston, 
would  be  far  more  efficient.  He  soon  satisfied  himself 
that  he  could  make  steam  wagons,  but  could  convince 
no  one  else  of  this  possibility.1 


Evans  was  then  living  in  Delaware,  where  he 
was  born,  and  where  he  later  worked  out  his  inven- 
tions in  flour-milling  machinery  and  invented  and 
put  into  service  the  high-pressure  steam  engine. 
He  appears  to  have  moved  to  Philadelphia  about 
1790,  the  year  of  Franklin's  death  and  of  the  Fed- 
eral Patent  Act;  and,  as  we  have  seen,  the  third 
patent  issued  by  the  Government  at  Philadelphia 
was  granted  to  him.  About  this  time  he  became 
absorbed  in  the  hard  work  of  writing  a  book,  the 
Millwright  and  Miller's  Guide,  which  he  published 
in  1795,  but  at  a  heavy  sacrifice  to  himself  in 
time  and  money.  A  few  years  later  he  had 
an  established  engine  works  in  Philadelphia  and 

1  Coleman  Sellers,  "  Oliver  Evans  and  His  Inventions, "  Journal 
of  the  Franklin  Institute,  July,  1886:  vol.  cxxn,  p.  3. 


72  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

was  making  steam  engines  of  his  own  type  that 

performed  their  work  satisfactorily. 

The  Oruktor  Amphibolos,  or  Amphibious  Digger, 
which  came  out  of  his  shop  in  1804,  was  a  steam- 
driven  machine  made  to  the  order  of  the  Philadel- 
phia Board  of  Health  for  dredging  and  cleaning 
the  docks  of  the  city.  It  was  designed,  as  its  name 
suggests,  for  service  either  in  water  or  on  shore. 
It  propelled  itself  across  the  city  to  the  river  front, 
puffing  and  throwing  off  clouds  of  steam  and 
making  quite  a  sensation  on  the  streets. 

Evans  had  never  forgotten  his  dream  of  the 
"steam  wagon."  His  Oruktor  had  no  sooner  begun 
puffing  than  he  offered  to  make  for  the  Philadel- 
phia and  Lancaster  Turnpike  Company  steam- 
driven  carriages  to  take  the  place  of  their  six-horse 
Conestoga  wagons,  promising  to  treble  their  profits. 
But  the  directors  of  the  road  were  conservative 
men  and  his  arguments  fell  on  deaf  ears. 

In  the  same  year  Evans  petitioned  Congress 
for  an  extension  of  the  patent  on  his  flour-milling 
machinery,  which  was  about  to  expire.  He  had 
derived  little  profit  from  this  important  invention, 
as  the  new  machinery  made  its  way  very  slowly, 
but  every  year  more  and  more  millers  were  using 
it  and  Evans  received  royalties  from  them.  He 


STEAM  IN  CAPTIVITY  73 

felt  sure  that  Congress  would  renew  his  patent, 
and,  with  great  expectations  for  the  future,  he  an- 
nounced a  new  book  in  preparation  by  himself 
to  be  called  The  Young  Engineer's  Guide.  It  was 
to  give  the  most  thorough  treatment  to  the  subject 
of  the  steam  engine,  with  a  profusion  of  draw- 
ings to  illustrate  the  text.  But  Evans  reckoned 
without  the  millers  who  were  opposing  his  peti- 
tion. Though  they  were  profiting  by  his  invention, 
they  were  unwilling  to  pay  him  anything,  and  they 
succeeded  in  having  his  bill  in  Congress  defeated. 
It  was  a  hard  blow  for  the  struggling  author  and 
inventor.  His  income  cut  off,  he  was  obliged  to 
reduce  the  scale  of  his  book  "and  to  omit  many  of 
the  illustrations  he  had  promised."  He  wrote  the 
sad  story  into  the  name  of  the  book.  It  came 
out  under  the  title  of  The  Abortion  of  the  Young 
Engineer's  Guide. 

Four  years  later,  when  Congress  restored  and 
extended  his  patent,  Evans  felt  that  better  days 
were  ahead,  but,  as  said  already,  he  was  too  far 
ahead  of  his  time  to  be  understood  and  appreciated. 
Incredulity,  prejudice,  and  opposition  were  his 
portion  as  long  as  he  lived.  Nevertheless,  he  went 
on  building  good  engines  and  had  the  satisfaction 
of  seeing  them  in  extensive  use.  His  life  came  to 


74  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

an  end  as  the  result  of  what  to  him  was  the  greatest 
possible  tragedy.  He  was  visiting  New  York  City 
in  1819,  when  news  came  to  him  of  the  destruction 
by  an  incendiary  of  his  beloved  shops  in  Philadel- 
phia. The  shock  was  greater  than  he  could  bear. 
A  stroke  of  apoplexy  followed,  from  which  he  died. 
The  following  prophecy,  written  by  Oliver  Evans 
and  published  in  1812,  seventeen  years  before  the 
practical  use  of  the  locomotive  began,  tells  us  some- 
thing of  the  vision  of  this  early  American  inventor: 

The  time  will  come  when  people  will  travel  in  stages 
moved  by  steam  engines  from  one  city  to  another 
almost  as  fast  as  birds  fly  —  fifteen  to  twenty  miles  an 
hour.  Passing  through  the  air  with  such  velocity  — 
changing  the  scenes  in  such  rapid  succession  —  will  be 
the  most  exhilarating,  (delightful  exercise.  A  carriage 
will  set  out  from  Washington  in  the  morning,  and 
the  passengers  will  breakfast  at  Baltimore,  dine  in 
Philadelphia,  and  sup  at  New  York  the  same  day. 

To  accomplish  this,  two  sets  of  railways  will  be  laid 
so  nearly  level  as  not  in  any  place  to  deviate  more  than 
two  degrees  from  a  horizontal  line,  made  of  wood  or 
iron,  on  smooth  paths  of  broken  stone  or  gravel,  with 
a  rail  to  guide  the  carriages  so  that  they  may  pass  each 
other  in  different  directions  and  travel  by  night  as  well 
as  by  day;  and  the  passengers  will  sleep  in  these  stages 
as  comfortably  as  they  do  now  in  steam  stage-boats.^ 

1  Cited  by  Coleman  Sellers,  Ibid.,  p.  13. 


STEAM  IN  CAPTIVITY  75 

Another  early  advocate  of  steam  carriages  and 
railways  was  John  Stevens,  the  rich  inventor  of 
Hoboken,  who  figures  in  the  story  of  the  steam- 
boat. In  February,  1812,  Stevens  addressed  to 
the  commissioners  appointed  by  the  State  of  New 
York  to  explore  a  route  for  the  Erie  Canal  an 
elaborate  memoir  calculated  to  prove  that  railways 
would  be  much  more  in  the  public  interest  than 
the  proposed  canal.  He  wrote  at  the  same  time  to 
Robert  R.  Livingston  (who,  as  well  as  Robert 
Fulton,  his  partner  in  the  steamboat,  was  one  of 
the  commissioners)  requesting  his  influence  in 
favor  of  railways.  Livingston,  having  committed 
himself  to  the  steamboat  and  holding  a  monopoly 
of  navigation  on  the  waters  of  New  York  State, 
could  hardly  be  expected  to  give  a  willing  ear 
to  a  rival  scheme,  and  no  one  then  seems  to  have 
dreamed  that  both  canal  and  railway  would  ulti- 
mately be  needed.  Livingston,  however,  was  an 
enlightened  statesman,  one  of  the  ablest  men  of  his 
day.  He  had  played  a  prominent  part  in  the  af- 
fairs of  the  Revolution  and  in  the  ratification  of  the 
Constitution;  had  known  Franklin  and  Washing- 
ton and  had  negotiated  with  Napoleon  the  Louis- 
iana Purchase.  His  reply  to  Stevens  is  a  good 
statement  of  the  objections  to  the  railway,  as 


76  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

seen  at  the  time,  and  of    the   public   attitude 
towards  it. 

ROBERT  R.  LIVINGSTON  TO  JOHN  STEVENS 

ALBANY,  llth  March,  1812. 

I  did  not,  till  yesterday,  receive  yours  of  the  25th  of 
February;  where  it  has  loitered  on  the  road  I  am  at  a 
loss  to  say.  I  had  before  read  your  very  ingenious 
propositions  as  to  the  rail-way  communication.  I  fear, 
however,  on  mature  reflection,  that  they  will  be  liable 
to  serious  objections,  and  ultimately  more  expensive 
than  a  canal.  They  must  be  double,  so  as  to  prevent 
the  danger  of  two  such  heavy  bodies  meeting.  The 
walls  on  which  they  are  placed  must  at  least  be  four 
feet  below  the  surface,  and  three  above,  and  must  be 
clamped  with  iron,  and  even  then  would  hardly  sus- 
tain so  heavy  a  weight  as  you  propose  moving  at  the 
rate  of  four  miles  an  hour  on  wheels.  As  to  wood,  it 
would  not  last  a  week;  they  must  be  covered  with  iron, 
and  that  too  very  thick  and  strong.  The  means  of 
stopping  these  heavy  carriages  without  a  great  shock, 
and  of  preventing  them  from  running  upon  each  other 
(for  there  would  be  many  on  the  road  at  once)  would 
be  very  difficult.  In  case  of  accidental  stops,  or  the 
necessary  stops  to  take  wood  and  water  &c  many  acci- 
dents would  happen.  The  carriage  of  condensed  water 
would  be  very  troublesome.  Upon  the  whole,  I  fear 
the  expense  would  be  much  greater  than  that  of  canals, 
without  being  so  convenient.1 

1  John  Stevens,  Documents  Tending  to  Prove  the  Superior  Ad- 
vantages of  Rail-Ways  and  Steam-Carriages  over  Canal  Navigation 


STEAM  IN  CAPTIVITY  77 

Stevens,  of  course,  could  not  convince  the  com- 
missioners. "The  Communication  from  John 
Stevens,  Esq.,"  was  referred  to  a  committee,  who 
reported  in  March:  "That  they  have  considered 
the  said  communication  with  the  attention  due 
to  a  gentleman  whose  scientific  researches  and 
knowledge  of  mechanical  powers  entitle  his  opin- 
ions to  great  respect,  and  are  sorry  not  to  concur 
in  them." 

Stevens,  however,  kept  up  the  fight.  He  pub- 
lished all  the  correspondence,  hoping  to  get  aid 
from  Congress  for  his  design,  and  spread  his  propa- 
ganda far  and  wide.  But  the  War  of  1812  soon 
absorbed  the  attention  of  the  country.  Then  came 
the  Erie  Canal,  completed  in  1825,  and  the  exten- 
sion into  the  Northwest  of  the  great  Cumberland 
Road.  From  St.  Louis  steamboats  churned  their 
way  up  the  Missouri,  connecting  with  the  Santa 
Fe  Trail  to  the  Southwest  and  the  Oregon  Trail  to 
the  far  Northwest.  Horses,  mules,  and  oxen  car- 
ried the  overland  travelers,  and  none  yet  dreamed 
of  being  carried  on  the  land  by  steam. 

Back  East,  however,  and  across  the  sea  in  Eng- 
land, there  were  a  few  dreamers.  Railways  of 

(1812).     Reprinted  in  The  Magazine  of  History  with  Notes  and 
Queries,  Extra  Number  54  (1917). 


78  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

wooden  rails,  sometimes  covered  with  iron,  on 
which  wagons  were  drawn  by  horses,  were  common 
in  Great  Britain;  some  were  in  use  very  early  in 
America.  And  on  these  railways,  or  tramways, 
men  were  now  experimenting  with  steam,  trying 
to  harness  it  to  do  the  work  of  horses.  In  England, 
Trevithick,  Blenkinsop,  Ericsson,  Stephenson,  and 
others;  in  America,  John  Stevens,  now  an  old  man 
but  persistent  in  his  plans  as  ever  and  with  able 
sons  to  help  him,  had  erected  a  circular  railway  at 
Hoboken  as  early  as  1826,  on  which  he  ran  a  loco- 
motive at  the  rate  of  twelve  miles  an  hour.  Then 
in  1828  Horatio  Allen,  of  the  Delaware  and  Hud- 
son Canal  Company,  went  over  to  England  and 
brought  back  with  him  the  Stourbridge  Lion.  This 
locomotive,  though  it  was  not  a  success  in  practice, 
appears  to  have  been  the  first  to  turn  a  wheel  on  a 
regular  railway  within  the  United  States.  It  was  a 
seven  days'  wonder  in  New  York  when  it  arrived  in 
May,  1829.  Then  Allen  shipped  it  to  Honesdale, 
Pennsylvania,  where  the  Delaware  and  Hudson 
Canal  Company  had  a  tramway  to  bring  down  coal 
from  the  mountains  to  the  terminal  of  the  canal. 
On  the  crude  wooden  rails  of  this  tramway  Allen 
placed  the  Stourbridge  Lion  and  ran  it  successfully 
at  the  rate  of  ten  miles  an  hour.  But  in  actual 


STEAM  IN  CAPTIVITY  79 

service  the  Stourbridge  Lion  failed  and  was  soon 
dismantled. 

Pass  now  to  Rainhill,  England,  and  witness  the 
birth  of  the  modern  locomotive,  after  all  these 
years  of  labor.  In  the  same  year  of  1829,  on  the 
morning  of  the  6th  of  October,  a  great  crowd  had 
assembled  to  see  an  extraordinary  race  —  a  race, 
in  fact,  without  any  parallel  or  precedent  whatso- 
ever. There  were  four  entries  but  one  dropped  out, 
leaving  three:  The  Novelty,  John  Braithwaite  and 
John  Ericsson;  The  Sanspareil,  Timothy  Hack- 
worth;  The  Rocket,  George  and  Robert  Stephenson. 
These  were  not  horses;  they  were  locomotives. 
The  directors  of  the  London  and  Manchester  Rail- 
way had  offered  a  prize  of  five  hundred  pounds 
for  the  best  locomotive,  and  here  they  were  to 
try  the  issue. 

The  contest  resulted  in  the  triumph  of  Stephen- 
son's  Rocket.  The  others  fell  early  out  of  the  race. 
The  Rocket  alone  met  all  the  requirements  and  won 
the  prize.  So  it  happened  that  George  Stephenson 
came  into  fame  and  has  ever  since  lived  in  popular 
memory  as  the  father  of  the  locomotive.  There 
was  nothing  new  in  his  Rocket,  except  his  own  work- 
manship. Like  Robert  Fulton,  he  appears  to  have 
succeeded  where  others  failed  because  he  was  a 


80  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

sounder  engineer,  or  a  better  combiner  of  sound 
principles  into  a  working  whole,  than  any  of 
his  rivals. 

Across  the  Atlantic  came  the  news  of  Stephen- 
son's  remarkable  success.  And  by  this  time  rail- 
roads were  beginning  in  various  parts  of  the  United 
States:  the  Mohawk  and  Hudson,  from  Albany  to 
Schenectady;  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio;  the  Charles- 
ton and  Hamburg  in  South  Carolina;  the  Camden 
and  Amboy,  across  New  Jersey.  Horses,  mules, 
and  even  sails,  furnished  the  power  for  these  early 
railroads.  It  can  be  imagined  with  what  inter- 
est the  owners  of  these  roads  heard  that  at  last  a 
practicable  locomotive  was  running  in  England. 

This  news  stimulated  the  directors  of  the  Balti- 
more and  Ohio  to  try  the  locomotive.  They  had 
not  far  to  go  for  an  experiment,  for  Peter  Cooper, 
proprietor  of  the  Canton  Iron  Works  in  Baltimore, 
had  already  designed  a  small  locomotive,  the  Tom 
Thumb.  This  was  placed  on  trial  in  August,  1830, 
and  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  first  American- 
built  locomotive  to  do  work  on  rails,  though  nearly 
coincident  with  it  was  the  Best  Friend  of  Charleston, 
built  by  the  West  Point  Foundry,  New  York,  for 
the  Charleston  and  Hamburg  Railroad.  It  is  often 
difficult,  as  we  have  seen,  to  say  which  of  two  or 


MODEL  OF  S7"E.4J/  EXGINE,  BY  OLIVER  EVANS,  1804 

Photograph  from  the  original  article  in  the  Franklin  Insti- 
tute of  Pennsylvania,  Philadephia.  By  courtesy  of  Dr.  G.  A. 
Hoadley. 


STEAM  IN  CAPTIVITY  81 

several  things  was  first.  It  appears  as  though  the 
little  Tom  Thumb  was  the  first  engine  built  in 
America  which  actually  pulled  weight  on  a  regular 
railway,  while  the  much  larger  Best  Friend  was  the 
first  to  haul  cars  in  regular  daily  service. 

The  West  Point  Foundry  followed  its  first  suc- 
cess with  the  West  Point,  which  also  went  into 
service  on  the  Charleston  and  Hamburg  Railroad, 
and  then  built  for  the  newly  finished  Mohawk  and 
Hudson  (the  first  link  in  the  New  York  Central 
Lines)  the  historic  De  Witt  Clinton.  This  primitive 
locomotive  and  the  cars  it  drew  may  be  seen  today 
hi  the  Grand  Central  Station  in  New  York. 

Meanwhile,  the  Stevens  brothers,  sons  of  John 
Stevens,  were  engaged  in  the  construction  of  the 
Camden  and  Amboy  Railroad.  The  first  locomo- 
tive to  operate  on  this  road  was  built  in  England 
by  George  Stephenson.  This  was  the  John  Bull, 
which  arrived  in  the  summer  of  1831  and  at  once 
went  to  work.  The  John  Bull  was  a  complete  suc- 
cess and  had  a  distinguished  career.  Sixty-two 
years  old,  in  1893,  it  went  to  Chicago,  to  the  Co- 
lumbian Exposition,  under  its  own  steam.  The 
John  Bull  occupies  a  place  today  in  the  National 
Museum  at  Washington. 

With  the  locomotive  definitely  accepted,  men 


82  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

began  to  turn  their  minds  towards  its  improvement 
and  development,  and  locomotive  building  soon 
became  a  leading  industry  in  America.  At  first  the 
British  types  and  patterns  were  followed,  but  it 
was  not  long  before  American  designers  began  to 
depart  from  the  British  models  and  to  evolve  a 
distinctively  American  type.  In  the  development 
of  this  type  great  names  have  been  written  into  the 
industrial  history  of  America,  among  which  the 
name  of  Matthias  Baldwin  of  Philadelphia  prob- 
ably ranks  first.  But  there  have  been  hundreds  of 
great  workers  in  this  field.  From  Stephenson's 
Rocket  and  the  little  Tom  Thumb  of  Peter  Cooper, 
to  the  powerful  "Mallets"  of  today,  is  a  long 
distance  —  not  spanned  in  ninety  years  save  by 
the  genius  and  restless  toil  of  countless  brains 
and  hands. 

If  the  locomotive  could  not  remain  as  it  was  left 
by  Stephenson  and  Cooper,  neither  could  the  sta- 
tionary steam  engine  remain  as  it  was  left  by  James 
Watt  and  Oliver  Evans.  Demands  increasing  and 
again  increasing,  year  after  year,  forced  the  steam 
engine  to  grow  in  order  to  meet  its  responsibilities. 
There  were  men  living  in  Philadelphia  in  1876,  who 
had  known  Oliver  Evans  personally;  at  least  one 


STEAM  IN  CAPTIVITY  83 

old  man  at  the  Centennial  Exhibition  had  himself 
seen  the  Oruktor  Amphibolos  and  recalled  the  con- 
sternation it  had  caused  on  the  streets  of  the  city 
in  1804.  It  seemed  a  far  cry  back  to  the  Oruktor 
from  the  great  and  beautiful  engine,  designed  by 
George  Henry  Corliss,  which  was  then  moving  all 
the  vast  machinery  of  the  Centennial  Exhibition. 
But  since  then  achievements  in  steam  have  dwarfed 
even  the  great  work  of  Corliss.  And  to  do  a  kind 
of  herculean  task  that  was  hardly  dreamed  of  in 
1876  another  type  of  engine  has  made  its  entrance: 
the  steam  turbine,  which  sends  its  awful  energy, 
transformed  into  electric  current,  to  light  a  million 
lamps  or  to  turn  ten  thousand  wheels  on  distant 
streets  and  highways. 


CHAPTER  IV 

SPINDLE,    LOOM,    AND    NEEDLE    IN    NEW    ENGLAND 

THE  major  steps  in  the  manufacture  of  clothes  are 
four:  first  to  harvest  and  clean  the  fiber  or  wool; 
second,  to  card  it  and  spin  it  into  threads;  third,  to 
weave  the  threads  into  cloth;  and,  finally  to  fashion 
and  sew  the  cloth  into  clothes.  We  have  already 
seen  the  influence  of  Eli  Whitney's  cotton  gin 
on  the  first  process,  and  the  series  of  inventions 
for  spinning  and  weaving,  which  so  profoundly 
changed  the  textile  industry  in  Great  Britain,  has 
been  mentioned.  It  will  be  the  business  of  this 
chapter  to  tell  how  spinning  and  weaving  machin- 
ery was  introduced  into  the  United  States  and 
how  a  Yankee  inventor  laid  the  keystone  of  the 
arch  of  clothing  machinery  by  his  invention  of 
the  sewing  machine. 

Great  Britain  was  determined  to  keep  to  herself 
the  industrial  secrets  she  had  gained.  According 
to  the  economic  beliefs  of  the  eighteenth  century, 

84 


SPINDLE,  LOOM,  AND  NEEDLE         85 

which  gave  place  but  slowly  to  the  doctrines  of 
Adam  Smith,  monopoly  rather  than  cheap  produc- 
tion was  the  road  to  success.  The  laws  therefore 
forbade  the  export  of  English  machinery  or  draw- 
ings and  specifications  by  which  machines  might  be 
constructed  in  other  countries.  Some  men  saw 
a  vast  prosperity  for  Great  Britain,  if  only  the 
mystery  might  be  preserved. 

Meanwhile  the  stories  of  what  these  machines 
could  do  excited  envy  in  other  countries,  where 
men  desired  to  share  in  the  industrial  gains.  And, 
even  before  Eli  Whitney's  cotton  gin  came  to 
provide  an  abundant  supply  of  raw  material,  some 
Americans  were  struggling  to  improve  the  old  hand 
loom,  found  in  every  house,  and  to  make  some  sort 
of  a  spinning  machine  to  replace  the  spinning  wheel 
by  which  one  thread  at  a  time  was  laboriously  spun. 

East  Bridgewater,  Massachusetts,  was  the  scene 
of  one  of  the  earliest  of  these  experiments.  There 
in  1786  two  Scotchmen,  who  claimed  to  under- 
stand Arkwright's  mechanism,  were  employed  to 
make  spinning  machines,  and  about  the  same  time 
another  attempt  was  made  at  Beverly.  In  both 
instances  the  experiments  were  encouraged  by  the 
State  and  assisted  with  grants  of  money.  The 
machines,  operated  by  horse  power,  were  crude, 


86  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

and  the  product  was  irregular  and  unsatisfactory. 
Then  three  men  at  Providence,  Rhode  Island, 
using  drawings  of  the  Beverly  machinery,  made 
machines  having  thirty-two  spindles  which  worked 
indifferently.  The  attempt  to  run  them  by  water 
power  failed,  and  they  were  sold  to  Moses  Brown 
of  Pawtucket,  who  with  his  partner,  William  Almy, 
had  mustered  an  army  of  hand-loom  weavers  in 
1790,  large  enough  to  produce  nearly  eight  thou- 
sand yards  of  cloth  in  that  year.  Brown's  need  of 
spinning  machinery,  to  provide  his  weavers  with 
yarn,  was  very  great;  but  these  machines  he  had 
bought  would  not  run,  and  in  1790  there  was  not  a 
single  successful  power-spinner  in  the  United  States. 
Meanwhile  Benjamin  Franklin  had  come  home, 
and  the  Pennsylvania  Society  for  the  Encourage- 
ment of  Manufactures  and  Useful  Arts  was  offering 
prizes  for  inventions  to  improve  the  textile  indus- 
try. And  in  Milford,  England,  was  a  young  man 
named  Samuel  Slater,  who,  on  hearing  that  inven- 
tive genius  was  munificently  rewarded  in  America, 
decided  to  migrate  to  that  country.  Slater  at  the 
age  of  fourteen  had  been  apprenticed  to  Jedediah 
Strutt,  a  partner  of  Arkwright.  He  had  served 
both  in  the  counting-house  and  the  mill  and  had 
had  every  opportunity  to  learn  the  whole  business. 


SPINDLE,  LOOM,  AND  NEEDLE         87 

Soon  after  attaining  his  majority,  he  landed  in 
New  York,  November,  1789,  and  found  employ- 
ment. From  New  York  he  wrote  to  Moses  Brown 
of  Pawtucket,  offering  his  services,  and  that  old 
Quaker,  though  not  giving  him  much  encourage- 
ment, invited  him  to  Pawtucket  to  see  whether  he 
could  run  the  spindles  which  Brown  had  bought 
from  the  men  of  Providence.  "If  thou  canst  do 
what  thou  sayest, "  wrote  Brown,  "I  invite  thee  to 
come  to  Rhode  Island." 

Arriving  in  Pawtucket  in  January,  1790,  Slater 
pronounced  the  machines  worthless,  but  convinced 
Almy  and  Brown  that  he  knew  his  business,  and 
they  took  him  into  partnership.  He  had  no  draw- 
ings or  models  of  the  English  machinery,  except 
such  as  were  in  his  head,  but  he  proceeded  to  build 
machines,  doing  much  of  the  work  himself.  On 
December  20, 1790,  he  had  ready  carding,  drawing, 
and  roving  machines  and  seventy-two  spindles  in 
two  frames.  The  water-wheel  of  an  old  fulling 
mill  furnished  the  power  —  and  the  machinery  ran. 

Here  then  was  the  birth  of  the  spinning  industry 
in  the  United  States.  The  "Old  Factory,"  as  it 
was  to  be  called  for  nearly  a  hundred  years,  was 
built  at  Pawtucket  in  1793.  Five  years  later 
Slater  and  others  built  a  second  mill,  and  in  1806, 


88  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

after  Slater  had  brought  out  his  brother  to  share 
his  prosperity,  he  built  another.  Workmen  came 
to  work  for  him  solely  to  learn  his  machines,  and 
then  left  him  to  set  up  for  themselves.  The  knowl- 
edge he  had  brought  soon  became  widespread. 
Mills  were  built  not  only  in  New  England  but  in 
other  States.  In  1809  there  were  sixty-two  spin- 
ning mills  in  operation  in  the  country,  with  thirty- 
one  thousand  spindles;  twenty-five  more  mills  were 
building  or  projected,  and  the  industry  was  firmly 
established  in  the  United  States.  The  yarn  was 
sold  to  housewives  for  domestic  use  or  else  to  pro- 
fessional weavers  who  made  cloth  for  sale.  This 
practice  was  continued  for  years,  not  only  in 
New  England,  but  also  in  those  other  parts  of 
the  country  where  spinning  machinery  had  been 
introduced. 

By  1810,  however,  commerce  and  the  fisheries 
had  produced  considerable  fluid  capital  in  New 
England  which  was  seeking  profitable  employment, 
especially  as  the  Napoleonic  Wars  interfered  with 
American  shipping;  and  since  Whitney's  gins  in  the 
South  were  now  piling  up  mountains  of  raw  cot- 
ton, and  Slater's  machines  in  New  England  were 
making  this  cotton  into  yarn,  it  was  inevitable 
that  the  next  step  should  be  the  power  loom,  to 


SPINDLE,  LOOM,  AND  NEEDLE          89 

convert  the  yarn  into  cloth.  So  Francis  Cabot 
Lowell,  scion  of  the  New  England  family  of  that 
name,  an  importing  merchant  of  Boston,  conceived 
the  idea  of  establishing  weaving  mills  in  Massa- 
chusetts. On  a  visit  to  Great  Britain  in  1811, 
Lowell  met  at  Edinburgh  Nathan  Appleton,  a 
fellow  merchant  of  Boston,  to  whom  he  disclosed 
his  plans  and  announced  his  intention  of  going  to 
Manchester  to  gain  all  possible  information  con- 
cerning the  new  industry.  Two  years  afterwards, 
according  to  Appleton's  account,  Lowell  and  his 
brother-in-law,  Patrick  T.  Jackson,  conferred  with 
Appleton  at  the  Stock  Exchange  in  Boston.  They 
had  decided,  they  said,  to  set  up  a  cotton  factory 
at  Waltham  and  invited  Appleton  to  join  them 
in  the  adventure,  to  which  he  readily  consented. 
Lowell  had  not  been  able  to  obtain  either  drawings 
or  model  in  Great  Britain,  but  he  had  nevertheless 
designed  a  loom  and  had  completed  a  model  which 
seemed  to  work. 

The  partners  took  in  with  them  Paul  Moody 
of  Amesbury,  an  expert  machinist,  and  by  the 
autumn  of  1814  looms  were  built  and  set  up  at 
Waltham.  Carding,  drawing,  and  roving  ma- 
chines were  also  built  and  installed  in  the  mill, 
these  machines  gaining  greatly,  at  Moody 's  expert 


90  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

hands,  over  their  American  rivals.  This  was  the 
first  mill  in  the  United  States,  and  one  of  the  first 
in  the  world,  to  combine  under  one  roof  all  the 
operations  necessary  to  convert  raw  fiber  into 
cloth,  and  it  proved  a  success.  Lowell,  says  his 
partner  Appleton,  "is  entitled  to  the  credit  for 
having  introduced  the  new  system  in  the  cotton 
manufacture."  Jackson  and  Moody  "were  men 
of  unsurpassed  talent,"  but  Lowell  "was  the  in- 
forming soul,  which  gave  direction  and  form  to 
the  whole  proceeding." 

The  new  enterprise  was  needed,  for  the  War  of 
1812  had  cut  off  imports.  The  beginnings  of  the 
protective  principle  in  the  United  States  tariff  are 
now  to  be  observed.  When  the  peace  came  and 
Great  Britain  began  to  dump  goods  in  the  United 
States,  Congress,  in  1816,  laid  a  minimum  duty  of 
six  and  a  quarter  cents  a  yard  on  imported  cottons; 
the  rate  was  raised  in  1824  and  again  in  1828.  It  is 
said  that  Lowell  was  influential  in  winning  the 
support  of  John  C.  Calhoun  for  the  impost  of  1816. 

Lowell  died  in  1817,  at  the  early  age  of  forty-two, 
but  his  work  did  not  die  with  him.  The  mills  he 
had  founded  at  Waltham  grew  exceedingly  pros- 
perous under  the  management  of  Jackson;  and  it 
was  not  long  before  Jackson  and  his  partners 


SPINDLE,  LOOM,  AND  NEEDLE         91 

Appleton  and  Moody  were  seeking  wider  oppor- 
tunities. By  1820  they  were  looking  for  a  suitable 
site  on  which  to  build  new  mills,  and  their  atten- 
tion was  directed  to  the  Pawtucket  Falls,  on  the 
Merrimac  River.  The  land  about  this  great  water 
power  was  owned  by  the  Pawtucket  Canal  Com- 
pany, whose  canal,  built  to  improve  the  navigation 
of  the  Merrimac,  was  not  paying  satisfactory 
profits.  The  partners  proceeded  to  acquire  the 
stock  of  this  company  and  with  it  the  land  neces- 
sary for  their  purpose,  and  in  December,  1821,  they 
executed  Articles  of  Association  for  the  Merrimac 
Manufacturing  Company,  admitting  some  addi- 
tional partners,  among  them  Kirk  Boott  who  was 
to  act  as  resident  agent  and  manager  of  the  new 
enterprise,  since  Jackson  could  not  leave  his  duties 
at  Waltham. 

The  story  of  the  enterprise  thus  begun  forms  one 
of  the  brightest  pages  in  the  industrial  history 
of  America;  for  these  partners  had  the  wisdom 
and  foresight  to  make  provision  at  the  outset  for 
the  comfort  and  well-being  of  their  operatives. 
Their  mill  hands  were  to  be  chiefly  girls  drawn 
from  the  rural  population  of  New  England,  strong 
and  intelligent  young  women,  of  whom  there  were 
at  that  time  great  numbers  seeking  employment, 


92  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

since  household  manufactures  had  come  to  be 
largely  superseded  by  factory  goods.  And  one  of 
the  first  questions  which  the  partners  considered 
was  whether  the  change  from  farm  to  factory  life 
would  effect  for  the  worse  the  character  of  these 
girls.  This,  says  Appleton,  "was  a  matter  of  deep 
interest.  The  operatives  in  the  manufacturing 
cities  of  Europe  were  notoriously  of  the  lowest 
character  for  intelligence  and  morals.  The  ques- 
tion therefore  arose,  and  was  deeply  considered, 
whether  this  degradation  was  the  result  of  the 
peculiar  occupation  or  of  other  and  distinct  causes. 
We  could  not  perceive  why  this  peculiar  descrip- 
tion of  labor  should  vary  in  its  effects  upon  charac- 
ter from  all  other  occupations."  And  so  we  find 
the  partners  voting  money,  not  only  for  factory 
buildings  and  machinery,  but  for  comfortable 
boarding-houses  for  the  girls,  and  planning  that 
these  boarding-houses  should  have  "the  most 
efficient  guards,"  that  they  should  be  in  "charge 
of  respectable  women,  with  every  provision  for 
religious  worship."  They  voted  nine  thousand 
dollars  for  a  church  building  and  further  sums 
later  for  a  library  and  a  hospital. 

The  wheels  of  the  first  mill  were  started  in  Sep- 
tember, 1823.    Next  year  the  partners  petitioned 


SPINDLE,  LOOM,  AND  NEEDLE         93 

the  Legislature  to  have  their  part  of  the  township 
set  off  to  form  a  new  town.  One  year  later  still 
they  erected  three  new  mills;  and  in  another  year 
(1826)  the  town  of  Lowell  was  incorporated. 

The  year  1829  found  the  Lowell  mills  in  straits 
for  lack  of  capital,  from  which,  however,  they  were 
promptly  relieved  by  two  great  merchants  of  Bos- 
ton, Amos  and  Abbott  Lawrence,  who  now  became 
partners  in  the  business  and  who  afterwards  found- 
ed the  city  named  for  them  farther  down  on  the 
Merrimac  River. 

The  story  of  the  Lowell  cotton  factories,  for 
twenty  years,  more  or  less,  until  the  American  girls 
operating  the  machines  came  to  be  supplanted 
by  French  Canadians  and  Irish,  is  appropriately 
summed  up  in  the  title  of  a  book  which  describes 
the  factory  life  in  Lowell  during  those  years.  The 
title  of  this  book  is  An  Idyl  of  Work  and  it  was 
written  by  Lucy  Larcom,  who  was  herself  one  of 
the  operatives  and  whose  mother  kept  one  of  the 
corporation  boarding-houses.  And  Lucy  Larcom 
was  not  the  only  one  of  the  Lowell  "factory  girls" 
who  took  to  writing  and  lecturing.  There  were 
many  others,  notably,  Harriet  Hanson  (later  Mrs. 
W.  S.  Robinson) ,  Harriot  Curtis  ("Mina  Myrtle"), 
and  Harriet  Farley;  and  many  of  the  "factory 


94  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

girls"  married  men  who  became  prominent  in  the 
world.  There  was  no  thought  among  them  that 
there  was  anything  degrading  in  factory  work. 
Most  of  the  girls  came  from  the  surrounding  farms, 
to  earn  money  for  a  trousseau,  to  send  a  brother 
through  college,  to  raise  a  mortgage,  or  to  enjoy 
the  society  of  their  fellow  workers,  and  have  a  good 
time  in  a  quiet,  serious  way,  discussing  the  sermons 
and  lectures  they  heard  and  the  books  they  read 
in  their  leisure  hours.  They  had  numerous  "im- 
provement circles"  at  which  contributions  of  the 
members  in  both  prose  and  verse  were  read  and 
discussed.  And  for  several  years  they  printed  a 
magazine,  The  Lowell  Offering,  which  was  entirely 
written  and  edited  by  girls  in  the  mills. 

Charles  Dickens  visited  Lowell  in  the  winter  of 
1842  and  recorded  his  impressions  of  what  he  saw 
there  in  the  fourth  chapter  of  his  American  Notes. 
He  says  that  he  went  over  several  of  the  factories, 
"examined  them  in  every  part;  and  saw  them  in 
their  ordinary  working  aspect,  with  no  preparation 
of  any  kind,  or  departure  from  their  ordinary 
every-day  proceedings";  that  the  girls  "were  all 
well  dressed:  and  that  phrase  necessarily  includes 
extreme  cleanliness.  They  had  serviceable  bonnets, 
good  warm  cloaks,  and  shawls.  .  .  .  Moreover, 


SPINDLE,  LOOM,  AND  NEEDLE         95 

there  were  places  in  the  mill  in  which  they  could 
deposit  these  things  without  injury;  and  there  were 
conveniences  for  washing.  They  were  healthy  in 
appearance,  many  of  them  remarkably  so,  and  had 
the  manners  and  deportment  of  young  women;  not 
of  degraded  brutes  of  burden. ' '  Dickens  continues : 
"The  rooms  in  which  they  worked  were  as  well 
ordered  as  themselves.  In  the  windows  of  some 
there  were  green  plants,  which  were  trained  to 
shade  the  glass;  in  all,  there  was  as  much  fresh  air, 
cleanliness,  and  comfort  as  the  nature  of  the  occu- 
pation would  possibly  admit  of."  Again:  "They 
reside  in  various  boarding-houses  near  at  hand. 
The  owners  of  the  mills  are  particularly  careful  to 
allow  no  persons  to  enter  upon  the  possession  of 
these  houses,  whose  characters  have  not  undergone 
the  most  searching  and  thorough  enquiry."  Fi- 
nally, the  author  announces  that  he  will  state  three 
facts  which  he  thinks  will  startle  his  English 
readers:  "Firstly,  there  is  a  joint-stock  piano  in 
a  great  many  of  the  boarding-houses.  Secondly, 
nearly  all  these  young  ladies  subscribe  to  circu- 
lating libraries.  Thirdly,  they  have  got  up  among 
themselves  a  periodical  called  THE  LOWELL  OFFER- 
ING .  .  .  whereof  I  brought  away  from  Lowell 
four  hundred  good  solid  pages,  which  I  have  read 


96  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

from  beginning  to  end."  And:  "Of  the  merits  of 
the  Lvwell  Offering  as  a  literary  production,  I  will 
only  observe,  putting  entirely  out  of  sight  the 
fact  of  the  articles  having  been  written  by  these 
girls  after  the  arduous  labors  of  the  day,  that  it 
will  compare  advantageously  with  a  great  many 
English  Annuals." 

The  efficiency  of  the  New  England  mills  was 
extraordinary.  James  Montgomery,  an  English 
cotton  manufacturer,  visited  the  Lowell  mills  two 
years  before  Dickens  and  wrote  after  his  inspection 
of  them  that  they  produced  "a  greater  quantity  of 
yarn  and  cloth  from  each  spindle  and  loom  (in  a 
given  time)  than  was  produced  by  any  other  fac- 
tories, without  exception  in  the  world."  Long 
before  that  time,  of  course,  the  basic  type  of  loom 
had  changed  from  that  originally  introduced,  and 
many  New  England  inventors  had  been  busy 
devising  improved  machinery  of  all  kinds. 

Such  were  the  beginnings  of  the  great  textile 
mills  of  New  England.  The  scene  today  is  vastly 
changed.  Productivity  has  been  multiplied  by 
invention  after  invention,  by  the  erection  of  mill 
after  mill,  and  by  the  employment  of  thousands  of 
hands  in  place  of  hundreds.  Lowell  as  a  textile 


SPINDLE,  LOOM,  AND  NEEDLE         97 

center  has  long  been  surpassed  by  other  cities. 
The  scene  in  Lowell  itself  is  vastly  changed.  If 
Charles  Dickens  could  visit  Lowell  today,  he  would 
hardly  recognize  in  that  city  of  modern  factories,  of 
more  than  a  hundred  thousand  people,  nearly  hah* 
of  them  foreigners,  the  Utopia  of  1842  which  he 
saw  and  described. 

The  cotton  plantations  in  the  South  were  flourish- 
ing, and  Whitney's  gins  were  cleaning  more  and 
more  cotton;  the  sheep  of  a  thousand  hills  wert 
giving  wool;  Arkwright's  machines  in  England, 
introduced  by  Slater  into  New  England,  were 
spinning  the  cotton  and  wool  into  yarn;  Cart- 
wright's  looms  in  England  and  Lowell's  improve- 
ments in  New  England  were  weaving  the  yarn  into 
cloth;  but  as  yet  no  practical  machine  had  been 
invented  to  sew  the  cloth  into  clothes. 

There  were  in  the  United  States  numerous  small 
workshops  where  a  few  tailors  or  seamstresses, 
gathered  under  one  roof,  laboriously  sewed  gar- 
ments together,  but  the  great  bulk  of  the  work, 
until  the  invention  of  the  sewing  machine,  was 
done  by  the  wives  and  daughters  of  farmers  and 
sailors  in  the  villages  around  Boston,  New  York, 
and  Philadelphia.  In  these  cities  the  garments 


98  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

were  cut  and  sent  out  to  the  dwellings  of  the  poor 
to  be  sewn.  The  wages  of  the  laborers  were  notori- 
ously inadequate,  though  probably  better  than  in 
England.  Thomas  Hood's  ballad  The  Song  of  the 
Shirt,  published  in  1843,  depicts  the  hardships  of 
the  English  woman  who  strove  to  keep  body  and 
soul  together  by  means  of  the  needle: 

With  fingers  weary  and  worn, 
With  eyelids  heavy  and  red, 

A  woman  sat  in  unwomanly  rags, 
Plying  her  needle  and  thread. 

Meanwhile,  as  Hood  wrote  and  as  the  whole 
English  people  learned  by  heart  his  vivid  lines,  as 
great  ladies  wept  over  them  and  street  singers  sang 
them  in  the  darkest  slums  of  London,  a  man,  hun- 
gry and  ill-clad,  in  an  attic  in  far-away  Cambridge, 
Massachusetts,  was  struggling  to  put  into  metal  an 
idea  to  lighten  the  toil  of  those  who  lived  by  the 
needle.  His  name  was  Elias  Howe  and  he  hailed 
from  Eli  Whitney's  old  home,  Worcester  County, 
Massachusetts.  There  Howe  was  born  in  1819. 
His  father  was  an  unsuccessful  farmer,  who  also 
had  some  small  mills,  but  seems  to  have  succeeded 
in  nothing  he  undertook. 

Young  Howe  led  the  ordinary  life  of  a  New 


SPINDLE,  LOOM,  AND  NEEDLE         99 

England  country  boy,  going  to  school  in  winter  and 
working  about  the  farm  until  the  age  of  sixteen, 
handling  tools  every  day,  like  any  farmer's  boy  of 
the  time.  Hearing  of  high  wages  and  interesting 
work  in  Lowell,  that  growing  town  on  the  Merri- 
mac,  he  went  there  in  1835  and  found  employment; 
but  two  years  later,  when  the  panic  of  1837  came 
on,  he  left  Lowell  and  went  to  work  in  a  machine 
shop  in  Cambridge.  It  is  said  that,  for  a  time,  he 
occupied  a  room  with  his  cousin,  Nathaniel  P. 
Banks,  who  rose  from  bobbin-boy  in  a  cotton  mill 
to  Speaker  of  the  United  States  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives and  Major-General  in  the  Civil  War. 
Next  we  hear  of  Howe  in  Boston,  working  in  the 
shop  of  Ari  Davis,  an  eccentric  maker  and  repairer 
of  fine  machinery.  Here  the  young  mechanic  heard 
of  the  desirability  of  a  sewing  machine  and  began 
to  puzzle  over  the  problem.  Many  an  inventor 
before  him  had  attempted  to  make  sewing  ma- 
chines and  some  had  just  fallen  short  of  success. 
Thomas  Saint,  an  Englishman,  had  patented  one 
fifty  years  earlier;  and  about  this  very  time  a 
Frenchman  named  Thimmonier  was  working 
eighty  sewing  machines  making  army  uniforms, 
when  needle  workers  of  Paris,  fearing  that  the 
bread  was  to  be  taken  from  them,  broke  into  his 


100  THE  AGE  OP  INVENTION 

workroom  and  destroyed  the  machines.  Thim- 
monier  tried  again,  but  his  machine  never  came 
into  general  use.  Several  patents  had  been  issued 
on  sewing  machines  in  the  United  States,  but 
without  any  practical  result.  An  inventor  named 
Walter  Hunt  had  discovered  the  principle  of  the 
lock-stitch  and  had  built  a  machine  but  had 
wearied  of  his  work  and  abandoned  his  invention, 
just  as  success  was  in  sight.  But  Howe  knew  noth- 
ing of  any  of  these  inventors.  There  is  no  evidence 
that  he  had  ever  seen  the  work  of  another. 

The  idea  obsessed  him  to  such  an  extent  that  he 
could  do  no  other  work,  and  yet  he  must  live.  By 
this  time  he  was  married  and  had  children,  and  his 
wages  were  only  nine  dollars  a  week.  Just  then  an 
old  schoolmate,  George  Fisher,  agreed  to  support 
his  family  and  furnish  him  with  five  hundred  dol- 
lars for  materials  and  tools.  The  attic  in  Fisher's 
house  in  Cambridge  was  Howe's  workroom.  His 
first  efforts  were  failures,  but  all  at  once  the  idea 
of  the  lock-stitch  came  to  him.  Previously  all 
machines  (except  Hunt's,  which  was  unknown,  not 
having  even  been  patented)  had  used  the  chain- 
stitch,  wasteful  of  thread  and  easily  unraveled. 
The  two  threads  of  the  lock-stitch  cross  in  the 
materials  joined  together,  and  the  lines  of  stitches 


SPINDLE,  LOOM,  AND  NEEDLE        101 

show  the  same  on  both  sides.  In  short,  the  chain- 
stitch  is  a  crochet  or  knitting  stitch,  while  the  lock- 
stitch is  a  weaving  stitch.  Howe  had  been  working 
at  night  and  was  on  his  way  home,  gloomy  and 
despondent,  when  this  idea  dawned  on  his  mind, 
probably  rising  out  of  his  experience  in  the  cotton 
mill.  The  shuttle  would  be  driven  back  and  forth 
as  in  a  loom,  as  he  had  seen  it  thousands  of  times, 
and  passed  through  a  loop  of  thread  which  the 
curved  needle  would  throw  out  on  the  other  side 
of  the  cloth;  and  the  cloth  would  be  fastened  to  the 
machine  vertically  by  pins.  A  curved  arm  would 
ply  the  needle  with  the  motion  of  a  pick-axe.  A 
handle  attached  to  the  fly-wheel  would  furnish 
the  power. 

On  that  design  Howe  made  a  machine  which, 
crude  as  it  was,  sewed  more  rapidly  than  five  of 
the  swiftest  needle  workers.  But  apparently  to  no 
purpose.  His  machine  was  too  expensive,  it  could 
sew  only  a  straight  seam,  and  it  might  easily  get 
out  of  order.  The  needle  workers  were  opposed,  as 
they  have  generally  been,  to  any  sort  of  labor- 
saving  machinery,  and  there  was  no  manufacturer 
willing  to  buy  even  one  machine  at  the  price  Howe 
asked,  three  hundred  dollars. 

Howe's  second  model  was  an  improvement  on 


102  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

the  first.  It  was  more  compact  and  it  ran  more 
smoothly.  He  had  no  money  even  to  pay  the  fees 
necessary  to  get  it  patented.  Again  Fisher  came 
to  the  rescue  and  took  Howe  and  his  machine 
to  Washington,  paying  all  the  expenses,  and  the 
patent  was  issued  in  September,  1846.  But,  as  the 
machine  still  failed  to  find  buyers,  Fisher  gave  up 
hope.  He  had  invested  about  two  thousand  dol- 
lars which  seemed  gone  forever,  and  he  could  not, 
or  would  not,  invest  more.  Howe  returned  tempo- 
rarily to  his  father's  farm,  hoping  for  better  times. 
Meanwhile  Howe  had  sent  one  of  his  brothers 
to  London  with  a  machine  to  see  if  a  foothold 
could  be  found  there,  and  in  due  time  an  encourag- 
ing report  came  to  the  destitute  inventor.  A  corset- 
maker  named  Thomas  had  paid  two  hundred  and 
fifty  pounds  for  the  English  rights  and  had  prom- 
ised to  pay  a  royalty  of  three  pounds  on  each 
machine  sold.  Moreover,  Thomas  invited  the 
inventor  to  London  to  construct  a  machine  es- 
pecially for  making  corsets.  Howe  went  to  Lon- 
don and  later  sent  for  his  family.  But  after  work- 
ing eight  months  on  small  wages,  he  was  as  badly 
off  as  ever,  for,  though  he  had  produced  the  desired 
machine,  he  quarrelled  with  Thomas  and  their 
relations  came  to  an  end. 


SPINDLE,  LOOM,  AND  NEEDLE       103 

An  acquaintance,  Charles  Inglis,  advanced 
Howe  a  little  money  while  he  worked  on  another 
model.  This  enabled  Howe  to  send  his  family 
home  to  America,  and  then,  by  selling  his  last 
model  and  pawning  his  patent  rights,  he  raised 
enough  money  to  take  passage  himself  in  the  steer- 
age in  1848,  accompanied  by  Inglis,  who  came  to 
try  his  fortune  in  the  United  States. 

Howe  landed  in  New  York  with  a  few  cents  in 
his  pocket  and  immediately  found  work.  But  his 
wife  was  dying  from  the  hardships  she  had  suffered, 
due  to  stark  poverty.  At  her  funeral,  Howe  wore 
borrowed  clothes,  for  his  only  suit  was  the  one  he 
wore  in  the  shop. 

Then,  soon  after  his  wife  had  died,  Howe's  in- 
vention came  into  its  own.  It  transpired  pres- 
ently that  sewing  machines  were  being  made  and 
sold  and  that  these  machines  were  using  the  prin- 
ciples covered  by  Howe's  patent.  Howe  found  an 
ally  in  George  W.  Bliss,  a  man  of  means,  who  had 
faith  in  the  machine  and  who  bought  out  Fisher's 
interest  and  proceeded  to  prosecute  inf ringers. 
Meanwhile  Howe  went  on  making  machines  —  he 
produced  fourteen  in  New  York  during  1850  — 
and  never  lost  an  opportunity  to  show  the  merits 
of  the  invention  which  was  being  advertised  and 


104  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

brought  to  notice  by  the  activities  of  some  of  the 
infringers,  particularly  by  Isaac  M.  Singer,  the 
best  business  man  of  them  all.  Singer  had  joined 
hands  with  Walter  Hunt  and  Hunt  had  tried  to 
patent  the  machine  which  he  had  abandoned  nearly 
twenty  years  before. 

The  suits  dragged  on  until  1854,  when  the  case 
was  decisively  settled  in  Howe's  favor.  His  patent 
was  declared  basic,  and  all  the  makers  of  sewing 
machines  must  pay  him  a  royalty  of  twenty-five 
dollars  on  every  machine.  So  Howe  woke  one 
morning  to  find  himself  enjoying  a  large  income, 
which  in  time  rose  as  high  as  four  thousand  dollars 
a  week,  and  he  died  in  1867  a  rich  man. 

Though  the  basic  nature  of  Howe's  patent  was 
recognized,  his  machine  was  only  a  rough  beginning. 
Improvements  followed,  one  after  another,  until 
the  sewing  machine  bore  little  resemblance  to 
Howe's  original.  John  Bachelder  introduced  the 
horizontal  table  upon  which  to  lay  the  work. 
Through  an  opening  in  the  table,  tiny  spikes  in  an 
endless  belt  projected  and  pushed  the  work  for- 
ward continuously.  Allan  B.  Wilson  devised  a 
rotary  hook  carrying  a  bobbin  to  do  the  work  of 
the  shuttle,  and  also  the  small  serrated  bar  which 
pops  up  through  the  table  near  the  needle,  moves 


ELI  AS    HOWE 
Painting  in  the  National  Museum,  Washington. 


HOWE'S    FIRST   SEU'IXd    M.U'HfXE 

Photograph  from  the  original   in  the   National    Museum, 
Washington. 


SPINDLE,  LOOM,  AND  NEEDLE       105 

forward  a  tiny  space,  carrying  the  cloth  with  it, 
drops  down  just  below  the  upper  surface  of  the 
table,  and  returns  to  its  starting  point,  to  repeat 
over  and  over  again  this  series  of  motions.  This 
simple  device  brought  its  owner  a  fortune.  Isaac 
M.  Singer,  destined  to  be  the  dominant  figure  of 
the  industry,  patented  in  1851  a  machine  stronger 
than  any  of  the  others  and  with  several  valuable 
features,  notably  the  vertical  presser  foot  held 
down  by  a  spring;  and  Singer  was  the  first  to  adopt 
the  treadle,  leaving  both  hands  of  the  operator  free 
to  manage  the  work.  His  machine  was  good,  but, 
rather  than  its  surpassing  merits,  it  was  his  wonder- 
ful business  ability  that  made  the  name  of  Singer 
a  household  word. 

By  1856  there  were  several  manufacturers  in  the 
field,  threatening  war  on  each  other.  All  men  were 
paying  tribute  to  Howe,  for  his  patent  was  basic, 
and  all  could  join  in  fighting  him,  but  there  were 
several  other  devices  almost  equally  fundamental, 
and  even  if  Howe's  patents  had  been  declared  void 
it  is  probable  that  his  competitors  would  have 
fought  quite  as  fiercely  among  themselves.  At  the 
suggestion  of  George  Gifford,  a  New  York  attorney, 
the  leading  inventors  and  manufacturers  agreed  to 
pool  their  inventions  and  to  establish  a  fixed  license 


106  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

fee  for  the  use  of  each.  This  "combination"  was 
composed  of  Elias  Howe,  Wheeler  and  Wilson, 
Grover  and  Baker,  and  I.  M.  Singer,  and  domi- 
nated the  field  until  after  1877,  when  the  majority 
of  the  basic  patents  expired.  The  members  manu- 
factured sewing  machines  and  sold  them  in  Amer- 
ica and  Europe.  Singer  introduced  the  install- 
ment plan  of  sale,  to  bring  the  machine  within 
reach  of  the  poor,  and  the  sewing-machine  agent, 
with  a  machine  or  two  on  his  wagon,  drove  through 
every  small  town  and  country  district,  demon- 
strating and  selling.  Meanwhile  the  price  of  the 
machines  steadily  fell,  until  it  seemed  that  Singer's 
slogan,  "A  machine  in  every  home!"  was  in  a  fair 
way  to  be  realized,  had  not  another  development 
of  the  sewing  machine  intervened. 

This  was  the  development  of  the  ready-made 
clothing  industry.  In  the  earlier  days  of  the  na- 
tion, though  nearly  all  the  clothing  was  of  domes- 
tic manufacture,  there  were  tailors  and  seam- 
stresses in  all  the  towns  and  many  of  the  villages, 
who  made  clothing  to  order.  Sailors  coming  ashore 
sometimes  needed  clothes  at  once,  and  apparently  ' 
a  merchant  of  New  Bedford  was  the  first  to  keep 
a  stock  on  hand.  About  1831,  George  Opdyke, 
later  Mayor  of  New  York,  began  the  manufacture 


SPINDLE,  LOOM,  AND  NEEDLE       107 

of  clothing  on  Hudson  Street,  which  he  sold  largely 
through  a  store  in  New  Orleans.  Other  firms  began 
to  reach  out  for  this  Southern  trade,  and  it  became 
important.  Southern  planters  bought  clothes  not 
only  for  their  slaves  but  for  their  families.  The 
development  of  California  furnished  another  large 
market.  A  shirt  factory  was  established,  in  1832, 
on  Cherry  and  Market  Streets,  New  York.  But 
not  until  the  coming  of  the  power-driven  sewing 
machine  could  there  be  any  factory  production  of 
clothes  on  a  large  scale.  Since  then  the  clothing 
industry  has  become  one  of  the  most  important  in 
the  country.  The  factories  have  steadily  improved 
their  models  and  materials,  and  at  the  present  day 
only  a  negligible  fraction  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States  wear  clothes  made  to  their  order. 

The  sewing  machine  today  does  many  things 
besides  sewing  a  seam.  There  are  attachments 
which  make  buttonholes,  darn,  embroider,  make 
ruffles  or  hems,  and  dozens  of  other  things.  There 
are  special  machines  for  every  trade,  some  of  which 
deal  successfully  with  refractory  materials. 

The  Singer  machine  of  1851  was  strong  enough 
to  sew  leather  and  was  almost  at  once  adopted 
by  the  shoemakers.  These  craftsmen  flourished 
chiefly  in  Massachusetts,  and  they  had  traditions 


108  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

reaching  back  at  least  to  Philip  Kertland,  who 
came  to  Lynn  in  1636  and  taught  many  appren- 
tices. Even  in  the  early  days  before  machinery, 
division  of  labor  was  the  rule  in  the  shops  of  Massa- 
chusetts. One  workman  cut  the  leather,  often 
tanned  on  the  premises;  another  sewed  the  uppers 
together,  while  another  sewed  on  the  soles.  Wood- 
en pegs  were  invented  in  1811  and  came  into  com- 
mon use  about  1815  for  the  cheaper  grades  of  shoes. 
Soon  the  practice  of  sending  out  the  uppers  to  be 
done  by  women  in  their  own  homes  became  com- 
mon. These  women  were  wretchedly  paid,  and 
when  the  sewing  machine  came  to  do  the  work 
better  than  it  could  be  done  by  hand,  the  practice 
of  "putting  out"  work  gradually  declined. 

That  variation  of  the  sewing  machine  which  was 
to  do  the  more  difficult  work  of  sewing  the  sole  to 
the  upper  was  the  invention  of  a  mere  boy,  Lyman 
R.  Blake.  The  first  model,  completed  in  1858,  was 
imperfect,  but  Blake  was  able  to  interest  Gordon 
McKay,  of  Boston,  and  three  years  of  patient 
experimentation  and  large  expenditure  followed. 
The  McKay  sole-sewing  machine,  which  they  pro- 
duced, came  into  use,  and  for  twenty-one  years 
was  used  almost  universally  both  in  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain.  But  this,  like  all  the 


SPINDLE,  LOOM,  AND  NEEDLE        109 

other  useful  inventions,  was  in  time  enlarged  and 
greatly  improved,  and  hundreds  of  other  inven- 
tions have  been  made  in  the  shoe  industry.  There 
are  machines  to  split  leather,  to  make  the  thickness 
absolutely  uniform,  to  sew  the  uppers,  to  insert 
eyelets,  to  cut  out  heel  tops,  and  many  more.  In 
fact,  division  of  labor  has  been  carried  farther  in 
the  making  of  shoes  than  in  most  industries,  for 
there  are  said  to  be  about  three  hundred  separate 
operations  in  making  a  pair  of  shoes. 

From  small  beginnings  great  industries  have 
grown.  It  is  a  far  cry  from  the  slow,  clumsy  ma- 
chine of  Elias  Howe,  less  than  three-quarters  of  a 
century  ago,  to  the  great  factories  of  today,  filled 
with  special  models,  run  at  terrific  speed  by  electric 
current,  and  performing  tasks  which  would  seem 
to  require  more  than  human  intelligence  and  skill. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  AGRICULTURAL  REVOLUTION 

THE  Census  of  1920  shows  that  hardly  thirty  per 
cent  of  the  people  are  today  engaged  in  agriculture, 
the  basic  industry  of  the  United  States,  as  com- 
pared with  perhaps  ninety  per  cent  when  the  nation 
began.  Yet  American  farmers,  though  constantly 
diminishing  in  proportion  to  the  whole  population, 
have  always  been,  and  still  are,  able  to  feed  them- 
selves and  all  their  fellow  Americans  and  a  large 
part  of  the  outside  world  as  well.  They  bring  forth 
also  not  merely  foodstuffs,  but  vast  quantities  of 
raw  material  for  manufacture,  such  as  cotton,  wool, 
and  hides.  This  immense  productivity  is  due  to 
the  use  of  farm  machinery  on  a  scale  seen  nowhere 
else  in  the  world.  There  is  still,  and  always  will  be, 
a  good  deal  of  hard  labor  on  the  farm.  But  inven- 
tion has  reduced  the  labor  and  has  made  possible 
the  carrying  on  of  this  vast  industry  by  a  relatively 
small  number  of  hands. 

no 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  REVOLUTION    111 

The  farmers  of  Washington's  day  had  no  better 
tools  than  had  the  farmers  of  Julius  Caesar's  day; 
in  fact,  the  Roman  ploughs  were  probably  superior 
to  those  in  general  use  in  America  eighteen  cen- 
turies later.  "The  machinery  of  production," 
says  Henry  Adams,  "showed  no  radical  difference 
from  that  familiar  in  ages  long  past.  The  Saxon 
farmer  of  the  eighth  century  enjoyed  most  of  the 
comforts  known  to  Saxon  farmers  of  the  eight- 
eenth." r  One  type  of  plough  in  the  United  States 
was  little  more  than  a  crooked  stick  with  an  iron 
point  attached,  sometimes  with  rawhide,  which 
simply  scratched  the  ground.  Ploughs  of  this  sort 
were  in  use  in  Illinois  as  late  as  1812.  There  were 
a  few  ploughs  designed  to  turn  a  furrow,  often 
simply  heavy  chunks  of  tough  wood,  rudely  hewn 
into  shape,  with  a  wrought-iron  point  clumsily 
attached.  The  moldboard  was  rough  and  the 
curves  of  no  two  were  alike.  Country  blacksmiths 
made  ploughs  only  on  order  and  few  had  patterns. 
Such  ploughs  could  turn  a  furrow  in  soft  ground  — 
if  the  oxen  were  strong  enough  —  but  the  friction 
was  so  great  that  three  men  and  four  or  six  oxen 
were  required  to  turn  a  furrow  where  the  sod 
was  tough. 

1  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  i,  p.  10. 


112  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

Thomas  Jefferson  had  worked  out  very  elabo- 
rately the  proper  curves  of  the  moldboard,  and 
several  models  had  been  constructed  for  him.  He 
was,  however,  interested  in  too  many  things  ever 
to  follow  any  one  to  the  end,  and  his  work  seems 
to  have  had  little  publicity.  The  first  real  inventor 
of  a  practicable  plough  was  Charles  Newbold,  of 
Burlington  County,  New  Jersey,  to  whom  a 
patent  for  a  cast-iron  plough  was  issued  in  June, 
1797.  But  the  farmers  would  have  none  of  it. 
They  said  it  "poisoned  the  soil"  and  fostered  the 
growth  of  weeds.  One  David  Peacock  received  a 
patent  in  1807,  and  two  others  later.  Newbold 
sued  Peacock  for  infringement  and  recovered 
damages.  Pieces  of  Newbold 's  original  plough  are 
in  the  museum  of  the  New  York  Agricultural 
Society  at  Albany. 

Another  inventor  of  ploughs  was  Jethro  Wood, 
a  blacksmith  of  Scipio,  New  York,  who  received 
two  patents,  one  in  1814  and  the  other  in  1819. 
His  plough  was  of  cast  iron,  but  in  three  parts,  so 
that  a  broken  part  might  be  renewed  without  pur- 
chasing an  entire  plough.  This  principle  of  stand- 
ardization marked  a  great  advance.  The  fanners 
by  this  time  were  forgetting  their  former  prej- 
udices, and  many  ploughs  were  sold.  Though 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  REVOLUTION    113 

Wood's  original  patent  was  extended,  infringe- 
ments were  frequent,  and  he  is  said  to  have  spent 
his  entire  property  in  prosecuting  them. 

In  clay  soils  these  ploughs  did  not  work  well,  as 
the  more  tenacious  soil  stuck  to  the  iron  mold- 
board  instead  of  curling  gracefully  away.  In  1833, 
John  Lane,  a  Chicago  blacksmith,  faced  a  wooden 
moldboard  with  an  old  steel  saw.  It  worked  like 
magic,  and  other  blacksmiths  followed  suit  to  such 
an  extent  that  the  demand  for  old  saws  became 
brisk.  Then  came  John  Deere,  a  native  of  Ver- 
mont, who  settled  first  in  Grand  Detour,  and  then 
in  Moline,  Illinois.  Deere  made  wooden  ploughs 
faced  with  steel,  like  other  blacksmiths,  but  was 
not  satisfied  with  them  and  studied  and  experi- 
mented to  find  the  best  curves  and  angles  for  a 
plough  to  be  used  in  the  soils  around  him.  His 
ploughs  were  much  in  demand,  and  his  need  for 
steel  led  him  to  have  larger  and  larger  quantities 
produced  for  him,  and  the  establishment  which 
still  bears  his  name  grew  to  large  proportions. 

Another  skilled  blacksmith,  William  Parlin,  at 
Canton,  Illinois,  began  making  ploughs  about 
1842,  which  he  loaded  upon  a  wagon  and  peddled 
through  the  country.  Later  his  establishment 
grew  large.  Another  John  Lane,  a  son  of  the  first, 


114  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

patented  in  1868  a  "soft-center"  steel  plough. 
The  hard  but  brittle  surface  was  backed  by  softer 
and  more  tenacious  metal,  to  reduce  the  breakage. 
The  same  year  James  Oliver,  a  Scotch  immigrant 
who  had  settled  at  South  Bend,  Indiana,  received 
a  patent  for  the  "  chilled  plough."  By  an  ingenious 
method  the  wearing  surfaces  of  the  casting  were 
cooled  more  quickly  than  the  back.  The  surfaces 
which  came  in  contact  with  the  soil  had  a  hard, 
glassy  surface,  while  the  body  of  the  plough  was  of 
tough  iron.  From  small  beginnings  Oliver's  es- 
tablishment grew  great,  and  the  Oliver  Chilled 
Plow  Works  at  South  Bend  is  today  one  of  the 
largest  and  most  favorably  known  privately  owned 
industries  in  the  United  States. 

From  the  single  plough  it  was  only  a  step  to  two 
or  more  ploughs  fastened  together,  doing  more 
work  with  approximately  the  same  man  power. 
The  sulky  plough,  on  which  the  ploughman  rode, 
made  his  work  easier,  and  gave  him  great  control. 
Such  ploughs  were  certainly  in  use  as  early  as  1844, 
perhaps  earlier.  The  next  step  forward  was  to  sub- 
stitute for  horses  a  traction  engine.  Today  one 
may  see  on  thousands  of  farms  a  tractor  pulling  six, 
eight,  ten,  or  more  ploughs,  doing  the  work  better 
than  it  could  be  done  by  an  individual  ploughman. 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  REVOLUTION    115 

On  the  "Bonanza"  farms  of  the  West  a  fifty  horse- 
power engine  draws  sixteen  ploughs,  followed  by 
harrows  and  a  grain  drill,  and  performs  the  three 
operations  of  ploughing,  harrowing,  and  planting 
at  the  same  time  and  covers  fifty  acres  or  more 
in  a  day. 

The  basic  ideas  in  drills  for  small  grains  were 
successfully  developed  in  Great  Britain,  and  many 
British  drills  were  sold  in  the  United  States  before 
one  was  manufactured  here.  American  manufac- 
ture of  these  drills  began  about  1840.  Planters  for 
corn  came  somewhat  later.  Machines  to  plant 
wheat  successfully  were  unsuited  to  corn,  which 
must  be  planted  less  profusely  than  wheat. 

The  American  pioneers  had  only  a  sickle  or  a 
scythe  with  which  to  cut  their  grain.  The  addition 
to  the  scythe  of  wooden  fingers,  against  which  the 
grain  might  lie  until  the  end  of  the  swing,  was  a 
natural  step,  and  seems  to  have  been  taken  quite 
independently  in  several  places,  perhaps  as  early  as 
1803.  Grain  cradles  are  still  used  in  hilly  regions 
and  in  those  parts  of  the  country  where  little  grain 
is  grown. 

The  first  attempts  to  build  a  machine  to  cut 
grain  were  made  in  England  and  Scotland,  several 
of  them  in  the  eighteenth  century;  and  in  1822 


116  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

Henry  Ogle,  a  schoolmaster  in  Rennington,  made  a 
mechanical  reaper,  but  the  opposition  of  the  labor- 
ers of  the  vicinity,  who  feared  loss  of  employment, 
prevented  further  development.  In  1826,  Patrick 
Bell,  a  young  Scotch  student,  afterward  a  Presby- 
terian minister,  who  had  been  moved  by  the  fatigue 
of  the  harvesters  upon  his  father's  farm  in  Argyll- 
shire, made  an  attempt  to  lighten  their  labor.  His 
reaper  was  pushed  by  horses;  a  reel  brought  the 
grain  against  blades  which  opened  and  closed  like 
scissors,  and  a  traveling  canvas  apron  deposited 
the  grain  at  one  side.  The  inventor  received  a 
prize  from  the  Highland  and  Agricultural  Society 
of  Edinburgh,  and  pictures  and  full  descriptions 
of  his  invention  were  published.  Several  models 
of  this  reaper  were  built  in  Great  Britain,  and 
it  is  said  that  four  came  to  the  United  States; 
however  this  may  be,  Bell's  machine  was  never 
generally  adopted. 

Soon  afterward  three  men  patented  reapers  in 
the  United  States:  William  Manning,  Plainfield, 
New  Jersey,  1831;  Obed  Hussey,  Cincinnati,  Ohio, 
1833;  and  Cyrus  Hall  McCormick,  Staunton,  Vir- 
ginia, 1834.  Just  how  much  they  owed  to  Patrick 
Bell  cannot  be  known,  but  it  is  probable  that  all 
had  heard  of  his  design  if  they  had  not  seen  his 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  REVOLUTION    117 

drawings  or  the  machine  itself.  The  first  of  these 
inventors,  Manning  of  New  Jersey,  drops  out  of 
the  story,  for  it  is  not  known  whether  he  ever  made 
a  machine  other  than  his  model.  More  persistent 
was  Obed  Hussey  of  Cincinnati,  who  soon  moved 
to  Baltimore  to  fight  out  the  issue  with  McCormick. 
Hussey  was  an  excellent  mechanic.  He  patented 
several  improvements  to  his  machine  and  received 
high  praise  for  the  efficiency  of  the  work.  But  he 
was  soon  outstripped  in  the  race  because  he  was 
weak  in  the  essential  qualities  which  made  McCor- 
mick the  greatest  figure  in  the  world  of  agricultural 
machinery.  McCormick  was  more  than  a  me- 
chanic; he  was  a  man  of  vision;  and  he  had  the  en- 
thusiasm of  a  crusader  and  superb  genius  for  busi- 
ness organization  and  advertisement.  His  story 
has  been  told  in  another  volume  of  this  series.1 

Though  McCormick  offered  reapers  for  sale  in 
1834,  he  seems  to  have  sold  none  in  that  year,  nor 
any  for  six  years  afterwards.  He  sold  two  in  1840, 
seven  in  1842,  fifty  in  1844.  The  machine  was  not 
really  adapted  to  the  hills  of  the  Valley  of  Virginia, 
and  farmers  hesitated  to  buy  a  contrivance  which 
needed  the  attention  of  a  skilled  mechanic.  Mc- 
Cormick made  a  trip  through  the  Middle  West. 

1  The  Age  of  Big  Business,  by  Burton  J.  Hendrick. 


118  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

In  the  rolling  prairies,  mile  after  mile  of  rich  soil 
without  a  tree  or  a  stone,  he  saw  his  future  domin- 
ion. Hussey  had  moved  East.  McCormick  did 
the  opposite;  he  moved  West,  to  Chicago,  in  1847. 

Chicago  was  then  a  town  of  hardly  ten  thousand, 
but  McCormick  foresaw  its  future,  built  a  factory 
there,  and  manufactured  five  hundred  machines 
for  the  harvest  of  1848.  From  this  time  he  went 
on  from  triumph  to  triumph.  He  formulated  an 
elaborate  business  system.  His  machines  were  to 
be  sold  at  a  fixed  price,  payable  in  installments  if 
desired,  with  a  guarantee  of  satisfaction.  He  set 
up  a  system  of  agencies  to  give  instruction  or  to 
supply  spare  parts.  Advertising,  chiefly  by  ex- 
hibitions and  contests  at  fairs  and  other  public 
gatherings,  was  another  item  of  his  programme. 
All  would  have  failed,  of  course,  if  he  had  not  built 
good  machines,  but  he  did  build  good  machines, 
and  was  not  daunted  by  the  Government's  refusal 
in  1848  to  renew  his  original  patent.  He  decided 
to  make  profits  as  a  manufacturer  rather  than 
accept  royalties  as  an  inventor. 

McCormick  had  many  competitors,  and  some  of 
them  were  in  the  field  with  improved  devices  ahead 
of  him,  but  he  always  held  his  own,  either  by  buy- 
ing up  the  patent  for  a  real  improvement,  or  else 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  REVOLUTION   119 

by  requiring  his  staff  to  invent  something  to  do  the 
same  work.  Numerous  new  devices  to  improve  the 
harvester  were  patented,  but  the  most  important 
was  an  automatic  attachment  to  bind  the  sheaves 
with  wire.  This  was  patented  in  1872,  and  Mc- 
Cormick  soon  made  it  his  own.  The  harvester 
seemed  complete.  One  man  drove  the  team,  and 
the  machine  cut  the  grain,  bound  it  in  sheaves,  and 
deposited  them  upon  the  ground. 

Presently,  however,  complaints  were  heard  of 
the  wire  tie.  When  the  wheat  was  threshed,  bits  of 
wire  got  into  the  straw,  and  were  swallowed  by  the 
cattle;  or  else  the  bits  of  metal  got  among  the  wheat 
itself  and  gave  out  sparks  in  grinding,  setting  some 
mills  on  fire.  Two  inventors,  almost  simultane- 
ously, produced  the  remedy.  Marquis  L.  Gorham, 
working  for  McCormick,  and  John  F.  Appleby, 
whose  invention  was  purchased  by  William  Deer- 
ing,  one  of  McCormick's  chief  competitors,  in- 
vented binders  which  used  twine.  By  1880  the 
self-binding  harvester  was  complete.  No  distinc- 
tive improvement  has  been  made  since,  except 
to  add  strength  and  simplification.  The  machine 
now  needed  the  services  of  only  two  men,  one  to 
drive  and  the  other  to  shock  the  bundles,  and  could 
reap  twenty  acres  or  more  a  day,  tie  the  grain  into 


120  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

bundles  of  uniform  size,  and  dump  them  in  piles  of 
five  ready  to  be  shocked. 

Grain  must  be  separated  from  the  straw  and 
chaff.  The  Biblical  threshing  floor,  on  which  oxen 
or  horses  trampled  out  the  grain,  was  still  common 
in  Washington's  time,  though  it  had  been  largely 
succeeded  by  the  flail.  In  Great  Britain  several 
threshing  machines  were  devised  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  but  none  was  particularly  successful. 
They  were  stationary,  and  it  was  necessary  to 
bring  the  sheaves  to  them.  The  seventh  patent 
issued  by  the  United  States,  to  Samuel  Mulliken 
of  Philadelphia,  was  for  a  threshing  machine.  The 
portable  horse-power  treadmill,  invented  in  1830 
by  Hiram  A.  and  John  A.  Pitts  of  Winthrop,  Maine, 
was  presently  coupled  with  a  thresher,  or  "separa- 
tor," and  this  outfit,  with  its  men  and  horses, 
moving  from  farm  to  farm,  soon  became  an  autumn 
feature  of  every  neighborhood.  The  treadmill  was 
later  on  succeeded  by  the  traction  engine,  and  the 
apparatus  now  in  common  use  is  an  engine  which 
draws  the  greatly  improved  threshing  machine 
from  farm  to  farm,  and  when  the  destination  is 
reached,  furnishes  the  power  to  drive  the  thresher. 
Many  of  these  engines  are  adapted  to  the  use  of 
straw  as  fuel. 


McCORMICK'S  REAPER  AS  MANUFACTURED  IN  THE 
FIFTIES 

Wood  engraving  by  Chamberlin,  Cincinnati. 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  REVOLUTION    121 

Another  development  was  the  combination  har- 
vester and  thresher  used  on  the  larger  farms  of 
the  West.  This  machine  does  not  cut  the  wheat 
close  to  the  ground,  but  the  cutter-bar,  over 
twenty-five  feet  in  length,  takes  off  the  heads. 
The  wheat  is  separated  from  the  chaff  and  auto- 
matically weighed  into  sacks,  which  are  dumped  as 
fast  as  two  expert  sewers  can  work.  The  motive 
power  is  a  traction  engine  or  else  twenty  to  thirty 
horses,  and  seventy-five  acres  a  day  can  be  reaped 
and  threshed.  Often  another  tractor  pulling  a 
dozen  wagons  follows  and  the  sacks  are  picked  up 
and  hauled  to  the  granary  or  elevator. 

Haying  was  once  the  hardest  work  on  the  farm, 
and  in  no  crop  has  machinery  been  more  efficient. 
The  basic  idea  in  the  reaper,  the  cutter-bar,  is  the 
whole  of  the  mower,  and  the  machine  developed 
with  the  reaper.  Previously  Jeremiah  Bailey,  of 
Chester  County,  Pennsylvania,  had  patented  in 
1822  a  machine  drawn  by  horses  carrying  a  re- 
volving wheel  with  six  scythes,  which  was  widely 
used.  The  inventions  of  Manning,  Hussey,  and 
McCormick  made  the  mower  practicable.  Hazard 
Knowles,  an  employee  of  the  Patent  Office,  in- 
vented the  hinged  cutter-bar,  which  could  be 
lifted  over  an  obstruction,  but  never  patented 


122  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

the  invention.  William  F.  Ketchum  of  Buffalo, 
New  York,  in  1844,  patented  the  first  machine  in- 
tended to  cut  hay  only,  and  dozens  of  others  fol- 
lowed. The  modern  mowing  machine  was  prac- 
tically developed  in  the  patent  of  Lewis  Miller  of 
Canton,  Ohio,  in  1858.  Several  times  as  many 
mowers  as  harvesters  are  sold,  and  for  that  mat- 
ter, reapers  without  binding  attachments  are  still 
manufactured. 

Hayrakes  and  tedders  seem  to  have  developed 
almost  of  themselves.  Diligent  research  has  failed 
to  discover  any  reliable  information  on  the  inven- 
tion of  the  hayrake,  though  a  horserake  was  pat- 
ented as  early  as  1818.  Joab  Center  of  Hudson, 
New  York,  patented  a  machine  for  turning  and 
spreading  hay  in  1834.  Mechanical  hay-loaders 
have  greatly  reduced  the  amount  of  human  labor. 
The  hay-press  makes  storage  and  transportation 
easier  and  cheaper. 

There  are  binders  which  cut  and  bind  corn.  An 
addition  shocks  the  corn  and  deposits  it  upon  the 
ground.  The  shredder  and  husker  removes  the 
ears,  husks  them,  and  shreds  shucks,  stalks,  and 
fodder.  Power  shellers  separate  grain  and  cobs 
more  than  a  hundred  times  as  rapidly  as  a  pair  of 
human  hands  could  do.  One  student  of  agriculture 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  REVOLUTION    123 

has  estimated  that  it  would  require  the  whole 
agricultural  population  of  the  United  States  one 
hundred  days  to  shell  the  average  corn  crop  by 
hand,  but  this  is  an  exaggeration. 

The  list  of  labor-saving  machinery  in  agriculture 
is  by  no  means  exhausted.  There  are  clover  hullers, 
bean  and  pea  threshers,  ensilage  cutters,  manure 
spreaders,  and  dozens  of  others.  On  the  dairy 
farm  the  cream  separator  both  increases  the  quan- 
tity and  improves  the  quality  of  the  butter  and 
saves  time.  Power  also  drives  the  churns.  On 
many  farms  cows  are  milked  and  sheep  are  sheared 
by  machines  and  eggs  are  hatched  without  hens. 

There  are,  of  course,  thousands  of  farms  in  the 
country  where  machinery  cannot  be  used  to  ad- 
vantage and  where  the  work  is  still  done  entirely  or 
in  part  in  the  old  ways. 

Historians  once  were  fond  of  marking  off  the 
story  of  the  earth  and  of  men  upon  the  earth  into 
distinct  periods  fixed  by  definite  dates.  One  who 
attempts  to  look  beneath  the  surface  cannot  ac- 
cept this  easy  method  of  treatment.  Beneath  the 
surface  new  tendencies  develop  long  before  they 
demand  recognition;  an  institution  may  be  de- 
caying long  before  its  weakness  is  apparent.  The 


124  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

American  Revolution  began  not  with  the  Stamp  Act 
but  at  least  a  century  earlier,  as  soon  as  the  settlers 
realized  that  there  were  three  thousand  miles  of 
sea  between  England  and  the  rude  country  in 
which  they  found  themselves;  the  Civil  War  began, 
if  not  in  early  Virginia,  with  the  "Dutch  Man  of 
Warre  that  sold  us  twenty  Negars,"  at  least  with 
Eli  Whitney  and  his  cotton  gin. 

Nevertheless,  certain  dates  or  short  periods  seem 
to  be  flowering  times.  Apparently  all  at  once  a 
flood  of  invention,  a  change  of  methods,  a  differ- 
ence in  organization,  or  a  new  psychology  manifests 
itself.  And  the  decade  of  the  Civil  War  does  serve 
as  a  landmark  to  mark  the  passing  of  one  period  in 
American  life  and  the  beginning  of  another;  es- 
pecially in  agriculture;  and  as  agriculture  is  the 
basic  industry  of  the  country  it  follows  that  with 
its  mutations  the  whole  superstructure  is  also 
changed. 

The  United  States  which  fought  the  Civil  War 
was  vastly  different  from  the  United  States  which 
fronted  the  world  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution. 
The  scant  four  million  people  of  1790  had  grown  to 
thirty-one  and  a  half  million.  This  growth  had 
come  chiefly  by  natural  increase,  but  also  by  immi- 
gration, conquest,  and  annexation.  Settlement 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  REVOLUTION    125 

had  reached  the  Pacific  Ocean,  though  there  were 
great  stretches  of  almost  uninhabited  territory  be- 
tween the  settlements  on  the  Pacific  and  those 
just  beyond  the  Mississippi. 

The  cotton  gin  had  turned  the  whole  South 
toward  the  cultivation  of  cotton,  though  some 
States  were  better  fitted  for  mixed  farming,  and 
their  devotion  to  cotton  meant  loss  in  the  end  as 
subsequent  events  have  proved.  The  South  was 
not  manufacturing  any  considerable  proportion  of 
the  cotton  it  grew,  but  the  textile  industry  was 
flourishing  in  New  England.  A  whole  series  of 
machines  similar  to  those  used  in  Great  Britain, 
but  not  identical,  had  been  invented  in  America. 
American  mills  paid  higher  wages  than  British  and 
in  quantity  production  were  far  ahead  of  the  Brit- 
ish mills,  in  proportion  to  hands  employed,  which 
meant  being  ahead  of  the  rest  of  the  world. 

Wages  in  America,  measured  by  the  world  stand- 
ard, were  high,  though  as  expressed  in  money,  they 
seem  low  now.  They  were  conditioned  by  the 
supply  of  free  land,  or  land  that  was  practically 
free.  The  wages  paid  were  necessarily  high  enough 
to  attract  laborers  from  the  soil  which  they  might 
easily  own  if  they  chose.  There  was  no  fixed  labor- 
ing class.  The  boy  or  girl  in  a  textile  mill  often 


126  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

worked  only  a  few  years  to  save  money,  buy  a  farm, 
or  to  enter  some  business  or  profession. 

The  steamboat  now,  wherever  there  was  navi- 
gable water,  and  the  railroad,  for  a  large  part  of  the 
way,  offered  transportation  to  the  boundless  West. 
Steamboats  traversed  all  the  larger  rivers  and  the 
lakes.  The  railroad  was  growing  rapidly.  Its  lines 
had  extended  to  more  than  thirty  thousand  miles. 
Construction  went  on  during  the  war,  and  the 
transcontinental  railway  was  in  sight.  The  loco- 
motive had  approached  standardization,  and  the 
American  railway  car  was  in  form  similar  to  that 
of  the  present  day,  though  not  so  large,  so  comfort- 
able, or  so  strong.  The  Pullman  car,  from  which 
has  developed  the  chair  car,  the  dining  car,  and 
the  whole  list  of  special  cars,  was  in  process  of  de- 
velopment, and  the  automatic  air  brake  of  George 
Westinghouse  was  soon  to  follow. 

Thus  far  had  the  nation  progressed  in  invention 
and  industry  along  the  lines  of  peaceful  develop- 
ment. But  with  the  Civil  War  came  a  sudden  and 
tremendous  advance.  No  result  of  the  Civil  War, 
political  or  social,  has  more  profoundly  affected 
American  life  than  the  application  to  the  farm, 
as  a  war  necessity,  of  machinery  on  a  great  scale. 
So  long  as  labor  was  plentiful  and  cheap,  only  a 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  REVOLUTION    127 

comparatively  few  farmers  could  be  interested  in 
expensive  machinery,  but  when  the  war  called  the 
young  men  away  the  worried  farmers  gladly  turned 
to  the  new  machines  and  found  that  they  were  able 
not  only  to  feed  the  Union,  but  also  to  export 
immense  quantities  of  wheat  to  Europe,  even 
during  the  war.  Suddenly  the  West  leaped  into 
great  prosperity.  And  long  centuries  of  economic 
and  social  development  were  spanned  within  a 
few  decades. 


CHAPTER  VI 

AGENTS   OF   COMMUNICATION 

COMMUNICATION  is  one  of  man's  primal  needs. 
There  was  indeed  a  time  when  no  formula  of 
language  existed,  when  men  communicated  with 
each  other  by  means  of  gestures,  grimaces,  gut- 
tural sounds,  or  rude  images  of  things  seen;  but  it  is 
impossible  to  conceive  of  a  time  when  men  had  no 
means  of  communication  at  all.  And  at  last,  after 
long  ages,  men  evolved  in  sound  the  names  of  the 
things  they  knew  and  the  forms  of  speech;  ages 
later,  the  alphabet  and  the  art  of  writing;  ages  later 
still,  those  wonderful  instruments  of  extension 
for  the  written  and  spoken  word:  the  telegraph, 
the  telephone,  the  modern  printing  press,  the 
phonograph,  the  typewriter,  and  the  camera. 

The  word  "telegraph"  is  derived  from  Greek 
and  means  "to  write  f  ar  " ;  so  it  is  a  very  exact  word, 
for  to  write  far  is  precisely  what  we  do  when  we 

128 


AGENTS  OF  COMMUNICATION        129 

send  a  telegram.  The  word  today,  used  as  a  noun, 
denotes  the  system  of  wires  with  stations  and  opera- 
tors and  messengers,  girdling  the  earth  and  reach- 
ing into  every  civilized  community,  whereby  news 
is  carried  swiftly  by  electricity.  But  the  word  was 
coined  long  before  it  was  discovered  that  intelli- 
gence could  be  communicated  by  electricity.  It 
denoted  at  first  a  system  of  semaphores,  or  tall 
poles  with  movable  arms,  and  other  signaling  ap- 
paratus, set  within  sight  of  one  another.  There 
was  such  a  telegraph  line  between  Dover  and 
London  at  the  time  of  Waterloo;  and  this  telegraph 
began  relating  the  news  of  the  battle,  which  had 
come  to  Dover  by  ship,  to  anxious  London,  when  a 
fog  set  in  and  the  Londoners  had  to  wait  until  a 
courier  on  horseback  arrived.  And,  in  the  very 
years  when  the  real  telegraph  was  coming  into 
being,  the  United  States  Government,  without  a 
thought  of  electricity,  was  considering  the  advisa- 
bility of  setting  up  such  a  system  of  telegraphs  in 
the  United  States. 

The  telegraph  is  one  of  America's  gifts  to  the 
world.  The  honor  for  this  invention  falls  to  Samuel 
Finley  Breese  Morse,  a  New  Englander  of  old 
Puritan  stock.  Nor  is  the  glory  that  belongs  to 
Morse  in  any  way  dimmed  by  the  fact  that  he  made 


130  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

use  of  the  discoveries  of  other  men  who  had  been 
trying  to  unlock  the  secrets  of  electricity  ever  since 
Franklin's  experiments.  If  Morse  discovered  no 
new  principle,  he  is  nevertheless  the  man  of  all  the 
workers  in  electricity  between  his  own  day  and 
Franklin's  whom  the  world  most  delights  to  honor; 
and  rightly  so,  for  it  is  to  such  as  Morse  that  the 
world  is  most  indebted.  Others  knew;  Morse  saw 
and  acted.  Others  had  found  out  the  facts,  but 
Morse  was  the  first  to  perceive  the  practical  sig- 
nificance of  those  facts;  the  first  to  take  steps  to 
make  them  of  service  to  his  fellows;  the  first  man 
of  them  all  with  the  pluck  and  persistence  to  re- 
main steadfast  to  his  great  design,  through  twelve 
long  years  of  toil  and  privation,  until  his  coun- 
trymen accepted  his  work  and  found  it  well  done. 
Morse  was  happy  in  his  birth  and  early  training. 
He  was  born  in  1791,  at  Charlestown,  Massachu- 
setts. His  father  was  a  Congregational  minister 
and  a  scholar  of  high  standing,  who,  by  careful 
management,  was  able  to  send  his  three  sons  to 
Yale  College.  Thither  went  young  Samuel  (or 
Finley,  as  he  was  called  by  his  family)  at  the  age  of 
fourteen  and  came  under  the  influence  of  Ben- 
jamin Silliman,  Professor  of  Chemistry,  and  of 
Jeremiah  Day,  Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy, 


AGENTS  OF  COMMUNICATION        131 

afterwards  President  of  Yale  College,  whose  teach- 
ing gave  him  impulses  which  in  later  years  led  to 
the  invention  of  the  telegraph.  "Mr.  Day's  lec- 
tures are  very  interesting,"  the  young  student 
wrote  home  in  1809;  "they  are  upon  electricity;  he 
has  given  us  some  very  fine  experiments,  the  whole 
class  taking  hold  of  hands  form  the  circuit  of  com- 
munication and  we  all  receive  the  shock  apparently 
at  the  same  moment."  Electricity,  however,  was 
only  an  alluring  study.  It  afforded  no  means  of 
livelihood,  and  Morse  had  gifts  as  an  artist;  in  fact, 
he  earned  a  part  of  his  college  expenses  painting 
miniatures  at  five  dollars  apiece.  He  decided, 
therefore,  that  art  should  be  his  vocation. 

A  letter  written  years  afterwards  by  Joseph  M. 
Dulles  of  Philadelphia,  who  was  at  New  Haven 
preparing  for  Yale  when  Morse  was  in  his  senior 
year,  is  worth  reading  here: 

I  first  became  acquainted  with  him  at  New  Ha- 
ven, when  about  to  graduate  with  the  class  of  1810, 
and  had  such  an  association  as  a  boy  preparing  for 
college  might  have  with  a  senior  who  was  just  finishing 
his  course.  Having  come  to  New  Haven  under  the  care 
of  Rev.  Jedidiah  Morse,  the  venerable  father  of  the 
three  Morses,  all  distinguished  men,  I  was  commend- 
ed to  the  protection  of  Finley,  as  he  was  then  com- 
monly designated,  and  therefore  saw  him  frequently 


132  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

during  the  brief  period  we  were  together.  The  father 
I  regard  as  the  gravest  man  I  ever  knew.  He  was 
a  fine  exemplar  of  the  gentler  type  of  the  Puritan, 
courteous  in  manner,  but  stern  in  conduct  and  in  as- 
pect. He  was  a  man  of  conflict,  and  a  leader  in  the 
theological  contests  in  New  England  in  the  early  part 
of  this  century.  Finley,  on  the  contrary,  bore  the 
expression  of  gentleness  entirely.  In  person  rather 
above  the  ordinary  height,  well  formed,  graceful  in 
demeanor,  with  a  complexion,  if  I  remember  right, 
slightly  ruddy,  features  duly  proportioned,  and  often 
lightened  with  a  genial  and  expressive  smile.  He  was, 
altogether,  a  handsome  young  man,  with  manners  un- 
usually bland.  It  is  needless  to  add  that  with  intelli- 
gence, high  culture,  and  general  information,  and  with 
a  strong  bent  to  the  fine  arts,  Mr.  Morse  was  in  1810 
an  attractive  young  man.  During  the  last  year  of  his 
college  life  he  occupied  his  leisure  hours,  with  a  view  to 
his  self-support,  in  taking  the  likenesses  of  his  fellow- 
students  on  ivory,  and  no  doubt  with  success,  as  he 
obtained  afterward  a  very  respectable  rank  as  a  por- 
trait-painter. Many  pieces  of  his  skill  were  afterward 
executed  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina.1 

That  Morse  was  destined  to  be  a  painter  seemed 
certain,  and  when,  soon  after  graduating  from 
Yale,  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Washington 
Allston,  an  American  artist  of  high  standing,  any 
doubts  that  may  have  existed  in  his  mind  as  to  his 
vocation  were  set  at  rest.  Allston  was  then  living 

1  Prime.  The  Life  of  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse,  LL.D.,  p.  26. 


AGENTS  OF  COMMUNICATION        133 

in  Boston,  but  was  planning  to  return  to  England, 
where  his  name  was  well  known,  and  it  was  ar- 
ranged that  young  Morse  should  accompany  him 
as  his  pupil.  So  in  1811  Morse  went  to  England 
with  Allston  and  returned  to  America  four  years 
later  an  accredited  portrait  painter,  having  studied 
not  only  under  Allston  but  under  the  famous 
master,  Benjamin  West,  and  having  met  on  inti- 
mate terms  some  of  the  great  Englishmen  of  the 
time.  He  opened  a  studio  in  Boston,  but  as  sitters 
were  few,  he  made  a  trip  through  New  England, 
taking  commissions  for  portraits,  and  also  visited 
Charleston,  South  Carolina,  where  some  of  his 
paintings  may  be  seen  today. 

At  Concord,  New  Hampshire,  Morse  met  Miss 
Lucretia  Walker,  a  beautiful  and  cultivated  young 
woman,  and  they  were  married  in  1818.  Morse 
then  settled  in  New  York.  His  reputation  as  a 
painter  increased  steadily,  though  he  gained  little 
money,  and  in  1825  he  was  in  Washington  painting 
a  portrait  of  the  Marquis  La  Fayette,  for  the  city 
of  New  York,  when  he  heard  from  his  father  the 
bitter  news  of  his  wife's  death  in  New  Haven,  then 
a  journey  of  seven  days  from  Washington.  Leav- 
ing the  portrait  of  La  Fayette  unfinished,  the 
heartbroken  artist  made  his  way  home. 


134  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

Two  years  afterwards  Morse  was  again  obsessed 
with  the  marvels  of  electricity,  as  he  had  been  in 
college.  The  occasion  this  time  was  a  series  of 
lectures  on  that  subject  given  by  James  Freeman 
Dana  before  the  New  York  Athenaeum  in  the 
chapel  of  Columbia  College.  Morse  attended 
these  lectures  and  formed  with  Dana  an  intimate 
acquaintance.  Dana  was  in  the  habit  of  going  to 
Morse's  studio,  where  the  two  men  would  talk 
earnestly  for  long  hours.  But  Morse  was  still 
devoted  to  his  art;  besides,  he  had  himself  and 
three  children  to  support,  and  painting  was  his  only 
source  of  income. 

Back  to  Europe  went  Morse  in  1829  to  pursue 
his  profession  and  perfect  himself  in  it  by  three 
years' further  study.  Then  came  the  crisis.  Home- 
ward bound  on  the  ship  Sully  in  the  autumn  of 
1832,  Morse  fell  into  conversation  with  some  scien- 
tific men  who  were  on  board.  One  of  the  passengers 
asked  this  question:  "Is  the  velocity  of  electricity 
reduced  by  the  length  of  its  conducting  wire?  "  To 
which  his  neighbor  replied  that  electricity  passes 
instantly  over  any  known  length  of  wire  and  re- 
ferred to  Franklin's  experiments  with  several  miles 
of  wire,  in  which  no  appreciable  time  elapsed  be- 
tween a  touch  at  one  end  and  a  spark  at  the  other. 


AGENTS  OF  COMMUNICATION        135 

Here  was  a  fact  already  well  known.  Morse 
must  have  known  it  himself.  But  the  tremendous 
significance  of  that  fact  had  never  before  occurred 
to  him  nor,  so  far  as  he  knew,  to  any  man.  A  re- 
cording telegraph!  Why  not?  Intelligence  de- 
livered at  one  end  of  a  wire  instantly  recorded  at 
the  other  end,  no  matter  how  long  the  wire!  It 
might  reach  across  the  continent  or  even  round 
the  earth.  The  idea  set  his  mind  on  fire. 

Home  again  in  November,  1832,  Morse  found 
himself  on  the  horns  of  a  dilemma.  To  give  up 
his  profession  meant  that  he  would  have  no  income; 
on  the  other  hand,  how  could  he  continue  whole- 
heartedly painting  pictures  while  consumed  with 
the  idea  of  the  telegraph?  The  idea  would  not 
down;  yet  he  must  live;  and  there  were  his  three 
motherless  children  in  New  Haven.  He  would 
have  to  go  on  painting  as  well  as  he  could  and  de- 
velop his  telegraph  in  what  time  he  could  spare. 
His  brothers,  Richard  and  Sidney,  were  both  living 
in  New  York  and  they  did  what  they  could  for 
him,  giving  him  a  room  in  a  building  they  had 
erected  at  Nassau  and  Beekman  Streets.  Morse's 
lot  at  this  time  was  made  all  the  harder  by  hopes 
raised  and  dashed  to  earth  again.  Congress  had 
voted  money  for  mural  paintings  for  the  rotunda  of 


136  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

the  Capitol.  The  artists  were  to  be  selected  by 
a  committee  of  which  John  Quincy  Adams  was 
chairman.  Morse  expected  a  commission  for  a 
part  of  the  work,  for  his  standing  at  that  time  was 
second  to  that  of  no  American  artist,  save  Allston, 
and  Allston  he  knew  had  declined  to  paint  any  of 
the  pictures  and  had  spoken  in  his  favor.  Adams, 
however,  as  chairman  of  the  committee  was  of  the 
opinion  that  the  pictures  should  be  done  by  for- 
eign artists,  there  being  no  Americans  available, 
he  thought,  of  sufficiently  high  standing  to  exe- 
cute the  work  with  fitting  distinction.  This  opin- 
ion, publicly  expressed,  infuriated  James  Fenimore 
Cooper,  Morse's  friend,  and  Cooper  wrote  an  at- 
tack on  Adams  in  the  New  York  Evening  Post,  but 
without  signing  it.  Supposing  Morse  to  be  the 
author  of  this  article,  Adams  summarily  struck 
his  name  from  the  list  of  artists  who  were  to 
be  employed. 

How  very  poor  Morse  was  about  this  time  is 
indicated  by  a  story  afterwards  told  by  General 
Strother  of  Virginia,  who  was  one  of  his  pupils: 

I  engaged  to  become  Morse's  pupil  and  subsequently 
went  to  New  York  and  found  him  in  a  room  in  Uni- 
versity Place.  He  had  three  or  four  other  pupils  and  I 
soon  found  that  our  professor  had  very  little  patronage. 


AGENTS  OF  COMMUNICATION        137 

I  paid  my  fifty  dollars  for  one-quarter's  instruction. 
Morse  was  a  faithful  teacher  and  took  as  much  in- 
terest in  our  progress  as  —  more  indeed  than  —  we 
did  ourselves.  But  he  was  very  poor.  I  remember 
that,  when  my  second  quarter's  pay  was  due,  my  re- 
mittance did  not  come  as  expected,  and  one  day 
the  professor  came  in  and  said,  courteously:  "Well 
Strother,  my  boy,  how  are  we  off  for  money?" 

"Why  professor,"  I  answered,  "I  am  sorry  to 
say  that  I  have  been  disappointed,  but  I  expect  a 
remittance  next  week." 

"  Next  week, "  he  repeated  sadly,  "  I  shall  be  dead  by 
that  time." 

"Dead,  sir?" 

"Yes,  dead  by  starvation." 

I  was  distressed  and  astonished.    I  said  hurriedly : 

"Would  ten  dollars  be  of  any  service?" 

"Ten  dollars  would  save  my  life.  That  is  all  it 
would  do." 

I  paid  the  money,  all  that  I  had,  and  we  dined  to- 
gether. It  was  a  modest  meal,  but  good,  and  after  he 
had  finished,  he  said: 

"This  is  my  first  meal  for  twenty -four  hours. 
Strother,  don't  be  an  artist.  It  means  beggary.  Your 
life  depends  upon  people  who  know  nothing  of  your  art 
and  care  nothing  for  you.  A  house  dog  lives  better, 
and  the  very  sensitiveness  that  stimulates  an  artist  to 
work  keeps  him  alive  to  suffering."1 

In  1835  Morse  received  an  appointment  to  the 
teaching  staff  of  New  York  University  and  moved 

1  Prime,  p.  424. 


138  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

his  workshop  to  a  room  in  the  University  building 
in  Washington  Square.  "There,"  says  his  biog- 
rapher,1 "he  wrought  through  the  year  1836, 
probably  the  darkest  and  longest  year  of  his  life, 
giving  lessons  to  pupils  in  the  art  of  painting  while 
his  mind  was  in  the  throes  of  the  great  invention." 
In  that  year  he  took  into  his  confidence  one  of  his 
colleagues  in  the  University,  Leonard  D.  Gale, 
who  assisted  him  greatly  in  improving  the  appara- 
tus, while  the  inventor  himself  formulated  the 
rudiments  of  the  telegraphic  alphabet,  or  Morse 
Code,  as  it  is  known  today.  At  length  all  was 
ready  for  a  test  and  the  message  flashed  from 
transmitter  to  receiver.  The  telegraph  was  born, 
though  only  an  infant  as  yet.  "Yes,  that  room  of 
the  University  was  the  birthplace  of  the  Record- 
ing Telegraph,"  said  Morse  years  later.  On  Sep- 
tember 2,  1837,  a  successful  experiment  was  made 
with  seventeen  hundred  feet  of  copper  wire  coiled 
around  the  room,  in  the  presence  of  Alfred  Vail,  a 
student,  whose  family  owned  the  Speedwell  Iron 
Works,  at  Morristown,  New  Jersey,  and  who  at 
once  took  an  interest  in  the  invention  and  per- 
suaded his  father,  Judge  Stephen  Vail,  to  advance 
money  for  experiments.  Morse  filed  a  petition  for 

'Prime,  p.  311. 


AGENTS  OF  COMMUNICATION        139 

a  patent  in  October  and  admitted  his  colleague 
Gale,  as  well  as  Alfred  Vail,  to  partnership.  Ex- 
periments followed  at  the  Vail  shops,  all  the  part- 
ners working  day  and  night  in  their  enthusiasm. 
The  apparatus  was  then  brought  to  New  York  and 
gentlemen  of  the  city  were  invited  to  the  Uni- 
versity to  see  it  work  before  it  left  for  Washington. 
The  visitors  were  requested  to  write  dispatches, 
and  the  words  were  sent  round  a  three-mile  coil  of 
wire  and  read  at  the  other  end  of  the  room  by  one 
who  had  no  prior  knowledge  of  the  message. 

In  February,  1838,  Morse  set  out  for  Washing- 
ton with  his  apparatus,  and  stopped  at  Philadel- 
phia on  the  invitation  of  the  Franklin  Institute  to 
give  a  demonstration  to  a  committee  of  that  body. 
Arrived  at  Washington,  he  presented  to  Congress  a 
petition,  asking  for  an  appropriation  to  enable  him 
to  build  an  experimental  line.  The  question  of  the 
appropriation  was  referred  to  the  Committee  on 
Commerce,  who  reported  favorably,  and  Morse 
then  returned  to  New  York  to  prepare  to  go  abroad, 
as  it  was  necessary  for  his  rights  that  his  invention 
should  be  patented  in  European  countries  before 
publication  in  the  United  States. 

Morse  sailed  in  May,  1838,  and  returned  to 
New  York  by  the  steamship  GreatWestern  in  April, 


140  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

1839.  His  journey  had  not  been  very  successful. 
He  had  found  London  in  the  excitement  of  the 
ceremonies  of  the  coronation  of  Queen  Victoria, 
and  the  British  Attorney-General  had  refused  him 
a  patent  on  the  ground  that  American  newspapers 
had  published  his  invention,  making  it  public 
property.  -In  France  he  had  done  better.  But  the 
most  interesting  result  of  the  journey  was  some- 
thing not  related  to  the  telegraph  at  all.  In  Paris 
he  had  met  Daguerre,  the  celebrated  Frenchman 
who  had  discovered  a  process  of  making  pictures 
by  sunlight,  and  Daguerre  had  given  Morse  the 
secret.  This  led  to  the  first  pictures  taken  by  sun- 
light in  the  United  States  and  to  the  first  photo- 
graphs of  the  human  face  taken  anywhere.  Da- 
guerre had  never  attempted  to  photograph  living 
objects  and  did  not  think  it  could  be  done,  as  rigid- 
ity of  position  was  required  for  a  long  exposure. 
Morse,  however,  and  his  associate,  John  W.  Draper, 
were  very  soon  taking  portraits  successfully. 

Meanwhile  the  affairs  of  the  telegraph  at  Wash- 
ington had  not  prospered.  Congress  had  done 
nothing  towards  the  grant  which  Morse  had  re- 
quested, notwithstanding  the  favorable  report  of  its 
committee,  and  Morse  was  in  desperate  straits  for 
money  even  to  live  on.  He  appealed  to  the  Vails 


AGENTS  OF  COMMUNICATION        141 

to  assist  him  further,  but  they  could  not,  since 
the  panic  of  1837  had  impaired  their  resources. 
He  earned  small  sums  from  his  daguerreotypes 
and  his  teaching. 

By  December,  1842,  Morse  was  in  funds  again; 
sufficiently,  at  least,  to  enable  him  to  go  to  Wash- 
ington for  another  appeal  to  Congress.  And  at 
last,  on  February  23,  1843,  a  bill  appropriating 
thirty  thousand  dollars  to  lay  the  wires  between 
Washington  and  Baltimore  passed  the  House  by  a 
majority  of  six.  Trembling  with  anxiety,  Morse 
sat  in  the  gallery  of  the  House  while  the  vote  was 
taken  and  listened  to  the  irreverent  badinage  of 
Congressmen  as  they  discussed  his  bill.  One  mem- 
ber proposed  an  amendment  to  set  aside  half  the 
amount  for  experiments  in  mesmerism,  another 
suggested  that  the  Millerites  should  have  a  part  of 
the  money,  and  so  on;  however,  they  passed  the 
bill.  And  that  night  Morse  wrote:  "The  long 
agony  is  over." 

But  the  agony  was  not  over.  The  bill  had  yet  to 
pass  the  Senate.  The  last  day  of  the  expiring  session 
of  Congress  arrived,  March  3, 1843,  and  the  Senate 
had  not  reached  the  bill.  Says  Morse's  biographer : 

In  the  gallery  of  the  Senate  Professor  Morse  had  sat 
all  the  last  day  and  evening  of  the  session.  At  midnight 


142  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

the  session  would  close.  Assured  by  his  friends  that 
there  was  no  possibility  of  the  bill  being  reached,  he 
left  the  Capitol  and  retired  to  his  room  at  the  hotel, 
dispirited,  and  well-nigh  broken-hearted.  As  he  came 
down  to  breakfast  the  next  morning,  a  young  lady  en- 
tered, and,  coming  toward  him  with  a  smile,  exclaimed : 

"  I  have  come  to  congratulate  you ! " 

"For  what,  my  dear  friend?  "  asked  the  professor,  of 
the  young  lady,  who  was  Miss  Annie  G.  Ellsworth, 
daughter  of  his  friend  the  Commissioner  of  Patents. 

"On  the  passage  of  your  bill." 

The  professor  assured  her  it  was  not  possible,  as  he 
remained  in  the  Senate-Chamber  until  nearly  mid- 
night, and  it  was  not  reached.  She  then  informed  him 
that  her  father  was  present  until  the  close,  and,  in  the 
last  moments  of  the  session,  the  bill  was  passed  with- 
out debate  or  revision.  Professor  Morse  was  overcome 
by  the  intelligence,  so  joyful  and  unexpected,  and  gave 
at  the  moment  to  his  young  friend,  the  bearer  of  these 
good  tidings,  the  promise  that  she  should  send  the 
first  message  over  the  first  line  of  telegraph  that 
was  opened.1 

Morse  and  his  partners2  then  proceeded  to  the 
construction  of  the  forty-mile  line  of  wire  between 
Baltimore  and  Washington.  At  this  point  Ezra 
Cornell,  afterwards  a  famous  builder  of  telegraphs 

1  Prime,  p.  465. 

2  The  property  in  the  invention  was  divided  into  sixteen  shares 
(the  partnership  having  been  formed  in  1838)  of  which  Morse  held 
9,  Francis  O.  J.  Smith  4,  Alfred  Vail  2,  Leonard  D.  Gale  2.    In 
patents  to  be  obtained  in  foreign  countries,  Morse  was  to  hold  8 


AGENTS  OF  COMMUNICATION        143 

and  founder  of  Cornell  University,  first  appears 
in  history  as  a  young  man  of  thirty-six.  Cornell 
invented  a  machine  to  lay  pipe  underground  to 
contain  the  wires  and  he  was  employed  to  carry 
out  the  work  of  construction.  The  work  was  com- 
menced at  Baltimore  and  was  continued  until  ex- 
periment proved  that  the  underground  method 
would  not  do,  and  it  was  decided  to  string  the 
wires  on  poles.  Much  time  had  been  lost,  but 
once  the  system  of  poles  was  adopted  the  work 
progressed  rapidly,  and  by  May,  1844,  the  line 
was  completed.  On  the  twenty-fourth  of  that 
month  Morse  sat  before  his  instrument  in  the  room 
of  the  Supreme  Court  at  Washington.  His  friend 
Miss  Ellsworth  handed  him  the  message  which  she 
had  chosen:  "What  hath  God  wrought!"  Morse 
flashed  it  to  Vail  forty  miles  away  in  Baltimore,  and 
Vail  instantly  flashed  back  the  same  momentous 
words,  "What  hath  God  wrought!" 

Two  days  later  the  Democratic  National  Con- 
vention met  in  Baltimore  to  nominate  a  President 
and  Vice-President.  The  leaders  of  the  Convention 


shares.  Smith  5,  Vail  2,  Gale  1.  Smith  had  been  a  member  of 
Congress  and  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Commerce.  He  was 
admitted  to  the  partnership  in  consideration  of  his  assisting  Morse 
to  arouse  the  interest  of  European  Governments. 


144  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

desired  to  nominate  Senator  Silas  Wright  of  New 
York,  who  was  then  in  Washington,  as  running 
mate  to  James  K.  Polk,  but  they  must  know 
first  whether  Wright  would  consent  to  run  as 
Vice-President.  So  they  posted  a  messenger  off  to 
Washington  but  were  persuaded  at  the  same  time 
to  allow  the  new  telegraph  to  try  what  it  could  do. 
The  telegraph  carried  the  offer  to  Wright  and 
carried  back  to  the  Convention  Wright's  refusal  of 
the  honor.  The  delegates,  however,  would  not 
believe  the  telegraph,  until  their  own  messenger, 
returning  the  next  day,  confirmed  its  message. 

For  a  time  the  telegraph  attracted  little  atten- 
tion. But  Cornell  stretched  the  lines  across  the 
country,  connecting  city  with  city,  and  Morse  and 
Vail  improved  the  details  of  the  mechanism  and 
perfected  the  code.  Others  came  after  them  and 
added  further  improvements.  And  it  is  gratifying 
to  know  that  both  Morse  and  Vail,  as  well  as  Cor- 
nell, lived  to  reap  some  return  for  their  labor. 
Morse  lived  to  see  his  telegraph  span  the  continent, 
and  link  the  New  World  with  the  Old,  and  died  in 
1872  full  of  honors. 

Prompt  communication  of  the  written  or  spoken 
message  is  a  demand  even  more  insistent  than 


SAMUEL    F.    B.    MORSE 
Photograph  by  Brady,  Washington. 


AGENTS  OF  COMMUNICATION         145 

prompt  transportation  of  men  and  goods.  By 
1859  both  the  railroad  and  the  telegraph  had 
reached  the  old  town  of  St.  Joseph  on  the  Missouri. 
Two  thousand  miles  beyond,  on  the  other  side  of 
plains  and  mountains  and  great  rivers,  lay  pros- 
perous California.  The  only  transportation  to 
California  was  by  stage-coach,  a  sixty  days'  jour- 
ney, or  else  across  Panama,  or  else  round  the  Horn, 
a  choice  of  three  evils.  But  to  establish  quicker 
communication,  even  though  transportation  might 
lag,  the  men  of  St.  Joseph  organized  the  Pony 
Express,  to  cover  the  great  wild  distance  by  riders 
on  horseback,  in  ten  or  twelve  days.  Relay 
stations  for  the  horses  and  men  were  set  up  at 
appropriate  points  all  along  the  way,  and  a  post- 
boy dashed  off  from  St.  Joseph  every  twenty-four 
hours,  on  arrival  of  the  train  from  the  East.  And 
for  a  time  the  Pony  Express  did  its  work  and  did 
it  well.  President  Lincoln's  First  Inaugural  was 
carried  to  California  by  the  Pony  Express;  so  was 
the  news  of  the  firing  on  Fort  Sumter.  But  by 
1862  the  Pony  Express  was  quietly  superseded  by 
the  telegraph,  which  in  that  year  had  completed 
its  circuits  all  the  way  to  San  Francisco,  seven 
years  ahead  of  the  first  transcontinental  railroad. 
And  in  four  more  years  Cyrus  W.  Field  and  Peter 


146  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

Cooper  had  carried  to  complete  success  the  Atlan- 
tic Cable;  and  the  Morse  telegraph  was  sending 
intelligence  across  the  sea,  as  well  as  from  New 
York  to  the  Golden  Gate. 

And  today  ships  at  sea  and  stations  on  land, 
separated  by  the  sea,  speak  to  one  another  in  the 
language  of  the  Morse  Code,  without  the  use  of 
wires.  Wireless,  or  radio,  telegraphy  was  the  in- 
vention of  a  nineteen-year-old  boy,  Guglielmo 
Marconi,  an  Italian;  but  it  has  been  greatly  ex- 
tended and  developed  at  the  hands  of  four  Ameri- 
cans: Fessenden,  Alexanderson,  Langmuir,  and 
Lee  De  Forest.  It  was  De  Forest's  invention  that 
made  possible  transcontinental  and  transatlantic 
telephone  service,  both  with  and  without  wires. 

The  story  of  the  telegraph's  younger  brother,  and 
great  ally  in  communication,  the  telephone  of  Alex- 
ander Graham  Bell,  is  another  pregnant  romance  of 
American  invention.  But  that  is  a  story  by  itself, 
and  it  begins  in  a  later  period  and  so  falls  within 
the  scope  of  another  volume  of  these  Chronicles. r 

Wise  newspapermen  stiffened  to  attention  when 
the  telegraph  began  ticking.  The  New  York  Herald, 

1  The  Age  of  Big  Business,  by  Burton  J.  Hendrick,  The  Chron- 
icles of  America,  vol.  xxxrx. 


AGENTS  OF  COMMUNICATION        147 

the  Sun,  and  the  Tribune  had  been  founded  only 
recently  and  they  represented  a  new  type  of  jour- 
nalism, swift,  fearless,  and  energetic.  The  proprie- 
tors of  these  newspapers  saw  that  this  new  instru- 
ment was  bound  to  affect  all  newspaperdom  pro- 
foundly. How  was  the  newspaper  to  cope  with  the 
situation  and  make  use  of  the  news  that  was  com- 
ing in  and  would  be  coming  in  more  and  more  over 
the  wires? 

For  one  thing,  the  newspapers  needed  better 
printing  machinery.  The  application  of  steam,  or 
any  mechanical  power,  to  printing  in  America  was 
only  begun.  It  had  been  introduced  by  Robert 
Hoe  in  the  very  years  when  Morse  was  struggling 
to  perfect  the  telegraph.  Before  that  time  news- 
papers were  printed  in  the  United  States,  on  presses 
operated  as  Franklin's  press  had  been  operated,  by 
hand.  The  New  York  Sun,  the  pioneer  of  cheap 
modern  newspapers,  was  printed  by  hand  in  1833, 
and  four  hundred  impressions  an  hour  was  the 
highest  speed  of  one  press.  There  had  been,  it  is 
true,  some  improvements  over  Franklin's  printing 
press.  The  Columbian  press  of  George  Clymer  of 
Philadelphia,  invented  in  1816,  was  a  step  forward. 
The  Washington  press,  patented  in  1829  by  Samuel 
Rust  of  New  York,  was  another  step  forward. 


148  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

Then  had  come  Robert  Hoe's  double-cylinder, 
steam-driven  printing  press.  But  a  swifter  ma- 
chine was  wanted.  And  so  in  1845  Richard  March 
Hoe,  a  son  of  Robert  Hoe,  invented  the  revolving 
or  rotary  press,  on  the  principle  of  which  larger 
and  larger  machines  have  been  built  —  machines 
so  complex  and  wonderful  that  they  baffle  descrip- 
tion; which  take  in  reels  of  white  paper  and  turn 
out  great  newspapers  complete,  folded  and  counted, 
at  the  rate  of  a  hundred  thousand  copies  an  hour. 
American  printing  machines  are  in  use  today  the 
world  over.  The  London  Times  is  printed  on 
American  machines. 

Hundreds  of  new  inventions  and  improvements 
on  old  inventions  followed  hard  on  the  growth  of 
the  newspaper,  until  it  seemed  that  the  last  word 
had  been  spoken.  The  newspapers  had  the  won- 
derful Hoe  presses;  they  had  cheap  paper;  they  had 
excellent  type,  cast  by  machinery;  they  had  a 
satisfactory  process  of  multiplying  forms  of  type 
by  stereotyping;  and  at  length  came  a  new  process 
of  making  pictures  by  photo-engraving,  supplant- 
ing the  old-fashioned  process  of  engraving  on  wood. 
Meanwhile,  however,  in  one  important  department 
of  the  work,  the  newspapers  had  made  no  advance 
whatever.  The  newspapers  of  New  York  in  the 


AGENTS  OF  COMMUNICATION        149 

year  1885,  and  later,  set  up  their  type  by  the  same 
method  that  Benjamin  Franklin  used  to  set  up  the 
type  for  The  Pennsylvania  Gazette.  The  composi- 
tor stood  or  sat  at  his  "case,"  with  his  "copy" 
before  him,  and  picked  the  type  up  letter  by  letter 
until  he  had  filled  and  correctly  spaced  a  line. 
Then  he  would  set  another  line,  and  so  on,  all 
with  his  hands.  After  the  job  was  completed,  the 
type  had  to  be  distributed  again,  letter  by  letter. 
Typesetting  was  slow  and  expensive. 

This  labor  of  typesetting  was  at  last  generally 
done  away  with  by  the  invention  of  two  intricate 
and  ingenious  machines.  The  linotype,  the  inven- 
tion of  Ottmar  Mergenthaler  of  Baltimore,  came 
first;  then  the  monotype  of  Tolbert  Lanston,  a 
native  of  Ohio.  The  linotype  is  the  favorite  com- 
posing machine  for  newspapers  and  is  also  widely 
used  in  typesetting  for  books,  though  the  mono- 
type is  preferred  by  book  printers.  One  or  other 
of  these  machines  has  today  replaced,  for  the 
most  part,  the  old  hand  compositors  in  every  large 
printing  establishment  in  the  United  States. 

While  the  machinery  of  the  great  newspapers  was 
being  developed,  another  instrument  of  commu- 
nication, more  humble  but  hardly  less  important 


150  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

in  modern  life,  was  coming  into  existence.  The 
typewriter  is  today  in  every  business  office  and 
is  another  of  America's  gifts  to  the  commercial 
world.  One  might  attempt  to  trace  the  type- 
writer back  to  the  early  seals,  or  to  the  name  plates 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  or  to  the  records  of  the  British 
Patent  Office,  for  1714,  which  mention  a  machine 
for  embossing.  But  it  would  be  difficult  to  estab- 
lish the  identity  of  these  contrivances  with  the 
modern  typewriter. 

Two  American  devices,  one  of  William  Burt  in 
1829,  for  a  "typographer,"  and  another  of  Charles 
Thurber,  of  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  in  1843, 
may  also  be  passed  over.  Alfred  Ely  Beach  made  a 
model  for  a  typewriter  as  early  as  1847,  but  neg- 
lected it  for  other  things,  and  his  next  effort  in 
printing  machines  was  a  device  for  embossing 
letters  for  the  blind.  His  typewriter  had  many  of 
the  features  of  the  modern  typewriter,  but  lacked  a 
satisfactory  method  of  inking  the  types.  This  was 
furnished  by  S.  W.  Francis  of  New  York,  whose 
machine,  in  1857,  bore  a  ribbon  saturated  with 
ink.  None  of  these  machines,  however,  was  a 
commercial  success.  They  were  regarded  merely 
as  the  toys  of  ingenious  men. 

The  accredited  father  of  the  typewriter  was 


AGENTS  OF  COMMUNICATION        151 

a  Wisconsin  newspaperman,  Christopher  Latham 
Sholes,  editor,  politician,  and  anti-slavery  agitator. 
A  strike  of  his  printers  led  him  to  unsuccessful 
attempts  to  invent  a  typesetting  machine.  He 
did  succeed,  however,  in  making,  in  collaboration 
with  another  printer,  Samuel  W.  Soule,  a  number- 
ing machine,  and  a  friend,  Carlos  Glidden,  to  whom 
this  ingenious  contrivance  was  shown,  suggested 
a  machine  to  print  letters. 

The  three  friends  decided  to  try.  None  had 
studied  the  efforts  of  previous  experimenters,  and 
they  made  many  errors  which  might  have  been 
avoided.  Gradually,  however,  the  invention  took 
form.  Patents  were  obtained  in  June,  1868,  and 
again  in  July  of  the  same  year,  but  the  machine 
was  neither  strong  nor  trustworthy.  Now  ap- 
peared James  Densmore  and  bought  a  share  in  the 
machine,  while  Soule  and  Glidden  retired.  Dens- 
more  furnished  the  funds  to  build  about  thirty 
models  in  succession,  each  a  little  better  than  the 
preceding.  The  improved  machine  was  patented 
in  1871,  and  the  partners  felt  that  they  were  ready 
to  begin  manufacturing. 

Wisely  they  determined,  in  1873,  to  offer  their 
machine  to  Eliphalet  Remington  and  Sons,  then 
manufacturing  firearms,  sewing  machines,  and  the 


152  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

like,  at  Ilion,  New  York.  Here,  in  well-equipped 
machine  shops  it  was  tested,  strengthened,  and 
improved.  The  Remingtons  believed  they  saw  a 
demand  for  the  machine  and  offered  to  buy  the 
patents,  paying  either  a  lump  sum,  or  a  royalty. 
It  is  said  that  Sholes  preferred  the  ready  cash  and 
received  twelve  thousand  dollars,  while  Densmore 
chose  the  royalty  and  received  a  million  and  a  half. 

The  telegraph,  the  press,  and  the  typewriter  are 
agents  of  communication  for  the  written  word. 
The  telephone  is  an  agent  for  the  spoken  word. 
And  there  is  another  instrument  for  recording  sound 
and  reproducing  it,  which  should  not  be  forgotten. 
It  was  in  1877  that  Thomas  Alva  Edison  completed 
the  first  phonograph.  The  ah-  vibrations  set  up  by 
the  human  voice  were  utilized  to  make  minute  in- 
dentations on  a  sheet  of  tinfoil  placed  over  a  metallic 
cylinder,  and  the  machine  would  then  reproduce  the 
sounds  which  had  caused  the  indentations.  The 
record  wore  out  after  a  few  reproductions,  how- 
ever, and  Edison  was  too  busy  to  develop  his  idea 
further  for  a  time,  though  later  he  returned  to  it. 

The  phonograph  today  appears  under  various 
names,  but  by  whatever  name  they  are  called,  the 
best  machines  reproduce  with  wonderful  fidelity  the 


AGENTS  OF  COMMUNICATION        153 

human  voice,  in  speech  or  song,  and  the  tones  of 
either  a  single  instrument  or  a  whole  orchestra. 
The  most  distinguished  musicians  are  glad  to  do 
their  best  for  the  preservation  and  reproduction  of 
their  art,  and  through  these  machines,  good  music 
is  brought  to  thousands  to  whom  it  could  come  in 
no  other  way. 

The  camera  bears  a  large  part  in  the  diffusion  of 
intelligence,  and  the  last  half  century  in  the  United 
States  has  seen  a  great  development  in  photogra- 
phy and  photo-engraving.  The  earliest  experi- 
ments in  photography  belong  almost  exclusively 
to  Europe.  Morse,  as  we  have  seen,  introduced 
the  secret  to  America  and  interested  his  friend 
John  W.  Draper,  who  had  a  part  in  the  perfection 
of  the  dry  plate  and  who  was  one  of  the  first,  if 
not  the  first,  to  take  a  portrait  by  photography. 

The  world's  greatest  inventor  in  photography  is, 
however,  George  Eastman,  of  Rochester.  It  was  in 
1888  that  Eastman  introduced  a  new  camera, 
which  he  called  by  the  distinctive  name  Kodak, 
and  with  it  the  slogan:  "You  press  the  button, 
we  do  the  rest."  This  first  kodak  was  loaded  with 
a  roll  of  sensitized  paper  long  enough  for  a  hundred 
exposures.  Sent  to  the  makers,  the  roll  could  'tself 


154  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

be  developed  and  pictures  could  be  printed  from 
it.  Eastman  had  been  an  amateur  photographer 
when  the  fancy  was  both  expensive  and  tedious. 
Inventing  a  method  of  making  dry  plates,  he 
began  to  manufacture  them  in  a  small  way  as 
early  as  1880.  After  the  first  kodak,  there  came 
others  filled  with  rolls  of  sensitized  nitre-cellulose 
film.  Priority  in  the  invention  of  the  cellulose 
film,  instead  of  glass,  which  has  revolutionized 
photography,  has  been  decided  by  the  courts  to 
belong  to  the  Reverend  Hannibal  Goodwin,  but 
the  honor  none  the  less  belongs  to  Eastman,  who 
independently  worked  out  his  process  and  gave 
photography  to  the  millions.  The  introduction  by 
the  Eastman  Kodak  Company  of  a  film  cartridge 
which  could  be  inserted  or  removed  without  re- 
tiring to  a  dark  room  removed  the  chief  difficulty 
in  the  way  of  amateurs,  and  a  camera  of  some 
sort,  varying  in  price  from  a  dollar  or  two  to  as 
many  hundreds,  is  today  an  indispensable  part  of  a 
vacation  equipment. 

In  the  development  of  the  animated  pictures 
Thomas  Alva  Edison  has  played  a  large  part.  Many 
were  the  efforts  to  give  the  appearance  of  move- 
ment to  pictures  before  the  first  real  entertainment 
was  staged  by  Henry  Heyl  of  Philadelphia.  Heyl's 


AGENTS  OF  COMMUNICATION  155 
pictures  were  on  glass  plates  fixed  in  the  circum- 
ference of  a  wheel,  and  each  was  brought  and  held 
for  a  part  of  a  second  before  the  lens.  This  method 
was  obviously  too  slow  and  too  expensive.  Edison 
with  his  keen  mind  approached  the  difficulty  and 
after  a  prolonged  series  of  experiments  arrived  at  the 
decision  that  a  continuous  tape-like  film  would  be 
necessary.  He  invented  the  first  practical "  taking  " 
camera  and  evoked  the  enthusiastic  cooperation  of 
George  Eastman  in  the  production  of  this  tape-like 
film,  and  the  modern  motion  picture  was  born.  The 
projecting  machine  was  substantially  like  the 
"taking"  camera  and  was  so  used.  Other  inventors, 
such  as  Paul  in  England  and  Lumiere  in  France, 
produced  other  types  of  projecting  machines,  which 
differed  only  in  mechanical  details. 

When  the  motion  picture  was  taken  up  in  earnest 
hi  the  United  States,  the  world  stared  in  aston- 
ishment at  the  apparent  recklessness  of  the  early 
managers.  The  public  responded,  however,  and 
there  is  hardly  a  hamlet  in  the  nation  where  there 
is  not  at  least  one  moving-picture  house.  The  most 
popular  actors  have  been  drawn  from  the  speaking 
stage  into  the  "movies,"  and  many  new  actors 
have  been  developed.  In  the  small  town,  the 
picture  theater  is  often  a  converted  storeroom,  but 


156  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

in  the  cities,  some  of  the  largest  and  most  attrac- 
tive theaters  have  been  given  over  to  the  pictures, 
and  others  even  more  luxurious  have  been  specially 
built.  The  Eastman  Company  alone  manufactures 
about  ten  thousand  miles  of  film  every  month. 

Besides  affording  amusement  to  millions,  the 
moving  picture  has  been  turned  to  instruction. 
Important  news  events  are  shown  on  the  screen, 
and  historical  events  are  preserved  for  posterity 
by  depositing  the  films  in  a  vault.  What  would 
the  historical  student  not  give  for  a  film  faithfully 
portraying  the  inauguration  of  George  Washing- 
ton !  The  motion  picture  has  become  an  important 
factor  in  instruction  in  history  and  science  in  the 
schools  and  this  development  is  still  in  its  infancy. 


CHAPTER  VH 

THE   STORY   OF   RUBBER 

ONE  day  in  1852,  at  Trenton,  New  Jersey,  there 
appeared  in  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States 
two  men,  the  legal  giants  of  their  day,  to  argue  the 
case  of  Goodyear  vs.  Day  for  infringement  of  patent. 
Rufus  Choate  represented  the  defendant  and  Daniel 
Webster  the  plaintiff.  Webster,  in  the  course  of  his 
plea,  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  moving  ever  ut- 
tered by  him,  paused  for  a  moment,  drew  from  him- 
self the  attention  of  those  who  were  hanging  upon 
his  words,  and  pointed  to  his  client.  He  would  have 
them  look  at  the  man  whose  cause  he  pleaded :  a  man 
of  fifty -two,  who  looked  fifteen  years  older,  sallow, 
emaciated  from  disease,  due  to  long  privations,  bit- 
ter disappointments,  and  wrongs.  This  was  Charles 
Goodyear,  inventor  of  the  process  which  put  rubber 
into  the  service  of  the  world.  Said  Webster: 

And  now  is  Charles  Goodyear  the  discoverer  of  this  in- 
vention of  vulcanized  rubber?  Is  he  the  first  man  upon 

157 


158  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

whose  mind  the  idea  ever  flashed,  or  to  whose  intelli- 
gence the  fact  ever  was  disclosed,  that  by  carrying  heat 
to  a  certain  height  it  would  cease  to  render  plastic  the 
India  Rubber  and  begin  to  harden  and  metallize  it? 
Is  there  a  man  in  the  world  who  found  out  that  fact  be- 
fore Charles  Goodyear?  Who  is  he?  Where  is  he? 
On  what  continent  does  he  live?  Who  has  heard  of 
him?  What  books  treat  of  him?  What  man  among  all 
the  men  on  earth  has  seen  him,  known  him,  or  named 
him?  Yet  it  is  certain  that  this  discovery  has  been 
made.  It  is  certain  that  it  exists.  It  is  certain  that  it 
is  now  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  all  over  the 
civilized  world.  It  is  certain  that  ten  or  twelve  years 
ago  it  was  not  knowledge.  It  is  certain  that  this  cu- 
rious result  has  grown  into  knowledge  by  somebody's 
discovery  and  invention.  And  who  is  that  somebody? 
The  question  was  put  to  my  learned  opponent  by  my 
learned  associate.  If  Charles  Goodyear  did  not  make 
this  discovery,  who  did  make  it?  Who  did  make  it? 
Why,  if  our  learned  opponent  had  said  he  should  en- 
deavor to  prove  that  some  one  other  than  Mr.  Good- 
year had  made  this  discovery,  that  would  have  been 
very  fair.  I  think  the  learned  gentleman  was  very 
wise  in  not  doing  so.  For  I  have  thought  often,  in  the 
course  of  my  practice  in  law,  that  it  was  not  very  ad- 
visable to  raise  a  spirit  that  one  could  not  conveniently 
lay  again.  Now  who  made  this  disco  very?  And  would 
it  not  be  proper?  I  am  sure  it  would.  And  would  it 
not  be  manly?  I  am  sure  it  would.  Would  not  my 
learned  friend  and  his  coadjutor  have  acted  a  more 
noble  part,  if  they  had  stood  up  and  said  that  this  in- 
vention was  not  Goodyear's,  but  it  was  an  invention  of 
such  and  such  a  man,  in  this  or  that  country?  On  the 


THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER  159 

contrary  they  do  not  meet  Goodyear' s  claim  by  setting 
up  a  distinct  claim  of  anybody  else.  They  attempt  to 
prove  that  he  was  not  the  inventor  by  little  shreds 
and  patches  of  testimony.  Here  a  little  bit  of  sulphur, 
and  there  a  little  parcel  of  lead;  here  a  little  degree  of 
heat,  a  little  hotter  than  would  warm  a  man's  hands, 
and  in  which  a  man  could  live  for  ten  minutes  or  a 
quarter  of  an  hour;  and  yet  they  never  seem  to  come  to 
the  point.  I  think  it  is  because  their  materials  did  not 
allow  them  to  come  to  the  manly  assertion  that  some- 
body else  did  make  this  invention,  giving  to  that  some- 
body a  local  habitation  and  a  name.  We  want  to 
know  the  name,  and  the  habitation,  and  the  location 
of  the  man  upon  the  face  of  this  globe,  who  invent- 
ed vulcanized  rubber,  if  it  be  not  he,  who  now  sits 
before  us. 

Well  there  are  birds  which  fly  in  the  air,  seldom 
lighting,  but  often  hovering.  Now  I  think  this  is  a 
question  not  to  be  hovered  over,  not  to  be  brooded 
over,  and  not  to  be  dealt  with  as  an  infinitesimal  quan- 
tity of  small  things.  It  is  a  case  calling  for  a  manly 
admission  and  a  manly  defense.  I  ask  again,  if  there 
is  anybody  else  than  Goodyear  who  made  this  inven- 
tion, who  is  he?  Is  the  discovery  so  plain  that  it  might 
have  come  about  by  accident?  It  is  likely  to  work  im- 
portant changes  in  the  arts  everywhere.  It  introduces 
quite  a  new  material  into  the  manufacture  of  the  arts,  that 
material  being  nothing  less  than  ELASTIC  METAL.  It  is 
hard  like  metal  and  as  elastic  as  pure  original  gum  elas- 
tic. Why,  that  is  as  great  and  momentous  a  phenome- 
non occurring  to  men  in  the  progress  of  their  knowl- 
edge, as  it  would  be  for  a  man  to  show  that  iron  and 
gold  could  remain  iron  and  gold  and  yet  become  elastic 


160  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

like  India  Rubber.  It  would  be  just  such  another  re- 
sult. Now,  this  fact  cannot  be  denied;  it  cannot  be  se- 
creted; it  cannot  be  kept  out  of  sight;  somebody  has 
made  this  invention.  That  is  certain.  Who  is  he? 
Mr.  Hancock  has  been  referred  to.  But  he  expressly 
acknowledges  Goodyear  to  be  the  first  inventor.  I  say 
that  there  is  not  in  the  world  a  human  being  that  can 
stand  up  and  say  that  it  is  his  invention,  except  the 
man  who  is  sitting  at  that  table. 

The  court  found  for  the  plaintiff,  and  this  deci- 
sion established  for  all  time  the  claim  of  the  Ameri- 
can, Charles  Goodyear,  to  be  the  sole  inventor  of 
vulcanized  rubber. 

This  trial  may  be  said  to  be  the  dramatic  climax 
in  the  story  of  rubber.  It  celebrated  the  hour 
when  the  science  of  invention  turned  a  raw  prod- 
uct— which  had  tantalized  by  its  promise  and 
wrought  ruin  by  its  treachery — into  a  manufacture 
adaptable  to  a  thousand  uses,  adding  to  man's  ease 
and  health  and  to  the  locomotion,  construction, 
and  communication  of  modern  life. 

When  Columbus  revisited  Hayti  on  his  second 
voyage,  he  observed  some  natives  playing  with  a 
ball.  Now,  ball  games  are  the  oldest  sport  known. 
From  the  beginning  of  his  history  man,  like  the 
kitten  and  the  puppy,  has  delighted  to  play  with 
the  round  thing  that  rolls.  The  men  who  came 


THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER  161 

with  Columbus  to  conquer  the  Indies  had  brought 
their  Castilian  wind-balls  to  play  with  in  idle 
hours.  But  at  once  they  found  that  the  balls  of 
Hayti  were  incomparably  superior  toys;  they 
bounced  better.  These  high  bouncing  balls  were 
made,  so  they  learned,  from  a  milky  fluid  of  the 
consistency  of  honey  which  the  natives  procured 
by  tapping  certain  trees  and  then  cured  over  the 
smoke  of  palm  nuts.  A  discovery  which  improved 
the  delights  of  ball  games  was  noteworthy. 

The  old  Spanish  historian,  Herrera,  gravely 
transcribed  in  his  pages  all  that  the  governors  of 
Hayti  reported  about  the  bouncing  balls.  Some 
fifty  years  later  another  Spanish  historian  related 
that  the  natives  of  the  Amazon  valley  made  shoes 
of  this  gum;  and  that  Spanish  soldiers  spread  their 
cloaks  with  it  to  keep  out  the  rain.  Many  years 
later  still,  in  1736,  a  French  astronomer,  who  was 
sent  by  his  government  to  Peru  to  measure  an  arc 
of  the  meridian,  brought  home  samples  of  the  gum 
and  reported  that  the  natives  make  lights  of  it, 
"which  burn  without  a  wick  and  are  very  bright," 
and  "shoes  of  it  which  are  waterproof,  and  when 
smoked  they  have  the  appearance  of  leather.  They 
also  make  pear-shaped  bottles  on  the  necks  of 
which  they  fasten  wooden  tubes.  Pressure  on  the 


162  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

bottle  sends  the  liquid  squirting  out  of  the  tube, 
so  they  resemble  syringes."  Their  name  for  the 
fluid,  he  added,  was  "cachuchu"  —  caoutchouc, 
we  now  write  it.  Evidently  the  samples  filled  no 
important  need  at  the  time,  for  we  hear  no  more  of 
the  gum  until  thirty-four  years  afterward.  Then, . 
so  an  English  writer  tells  us,  a  use  was  found  for 
the  gum  —  and  a  name.  A  stationer  accidentally 
discovered  that  it  would  erase  pencil  marks,  And, 
as  it  came  from  the  Indies  and  rubbed,  of  course  it 
was  "India  rubber." 

About  the  year  1820  American  merchantmen, 
plying  between  Brazil  and  New  England,  some- 
times carried  rubber  as  ballast  on  the  home  voyage 
and  dumped  it  on  the  wharves  at  Boston.  One  of 
the  shipmasters  exhibited  to  his  friends  a  pair  of 
native  shoes  fancifully  gilded.  Another,  with  more 
foresight,  brought  home  five  hundred  pairs,  un- 
gilded,  and  offered  them  for  sale.  They  were  thick, 
clumsily  shaped,  and  heavy,  but  they  sold.  There 
was  a  demand  for  more.  In  a  few  years  half  a 
million  pairs  were  being  imported  annually.  New 
England  manufacturers  bid  against  one  another 
along  the  wharves  for  the  gum  which  had  been 
used  as  ballast  and  began  to  make  rubber  shoes. 

European  vessels  had  also  carried  rubber  home; 


THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER  163 

and  experiments  were  being  made  with  it  in  France 
and  Britain.  A  Frenchman  manufactured  sus- 
penders by  cutting  a  native  bottle  into  fine  threads 
and  running  them  through  a  narrow  cloth  web. 
And  Macintosh,  a  chemist  of  Glasgow,  inserted 
rubber  treated  with  naphtha  between  thin  pieces 
of  cloth  and  evolved  the  garment  that  still  bears 
his  name. 

At  first  the  new  business  in  rubber  yielded  profits. 
The  cost  of  the  raw  material  was  infinitesimal;  and 
there  was  a  demand  for  the  finished  articles.  In 
Roxbury,  Massachusetts,  a  firm  manufacturing 
patent  leather  treated  raw  rubber  with  turpentine 
and  lampblack  and  spread  it  on  cloth,  in  an  effort 
to  produce  a  waterproof  leather.  The  process  ap- 
peared to  be  a  complete  success,  and  a  large  capital 
was  employed  to  make  handsome  shoes  and  cloth- 
ing out  of  the  new  product  and  in  opening  shops  in 
the  large  cities  for  their  sale.  Merchants  throughout 
the  country  placed  orders  for  these  goods,  which,  as 
it  happened,  were  made  and  shipped  in  winter. 

But,  when  summer  came,  the  huge  profits  of  the 
manufacturers  literally  melted  away,  for  the  beau- 
tiful garments  decomposed  in  the  heat;  and  loads 
of  them,  melting  and  running  together,  were  being 
returned  to  the  factory.  And  they  filled  Roxbury 


164  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

with  such  noisome  odors  that  they  had  to  be  taken 
out  at  dead  of  night  and  buried  deep  in  the  earth. 

And  not  only  did  these  rubber  garments  melt  in 
the  heat.  It  presently  transpired  that  severe  frost 
stiffened  them  to  the  rigidity  of  granite.  Daniel 
Webster  had  had  some  experience  in  this  matter 
himself.  "A  friend  in  New  York,"  he  said,  "sent 
me  a  very  fine  cloak  of  India  Rubber,  and  a  hat  of 
the  same  material.  I  did  not  succeed  very  well 
with  them.  I  took  the  cloak  one  day  and  set  it  out 
hi  the  cold.  It  stood  very  well  by  itself.  I  sur- 
mounted it  with  the  hat,  and  many  persons  passing 
by  supposed  they  saw,  standing  by  the  porch,  the 
Farmer  of  Marshfield." 

It  was  in  the  year  1834,  shortly  after  the  Rox- 
bury  manufacturers  had  come  to  realize  that  their 
process  was  worthless  and  that  their  great  fortune 
was  only  a  mirage,  and  just  before  these  facts 
became  generally  known,  that  Charles  Goodyear 
made  his  entrance  on  the  scene.  He  appeared  first 
as  a  customer  in  the  company's  store  in  New  York 
and  bought  a  rubber  life-preserver.  When  he  re- 
turned some  weeks  later  with  a  plan  for  improving 
the  tube,  the  manager  confided  to  him  the  sad 
tragedy  of  rubber,  pointing  out  that  no  improve- 
ment in  the  manufactured  articles  would  meet  the 


THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER  165 

difficulty,  but  that  fame  and  fortune  awaited  the 
inventor  of  a  process  that  would  keep  rubber  dry 
and  firm  and  flexible  in  all  weathers. 

Goodyear  felt  that  he  had  a  call  from  God.  "  He 
who  directs  the  operations  of  the  mind, "  he  wrote 
at  a  later  date,  "can  turn  it  to  the  development  of 
the  properties  of  Nature  in  his  own  way,  and  at  the 
time  when  they  are  specially  needed.  The  creature 
imagines  he  is  executing  some  plan  of  his  own, 
while  he  is  simply  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of 
his  Maker  for  executing  the  divine  purposes  of 
beneficence  to  the  race."  It  was  in  the  spirit  of  a 
crusader,  consecrated  to  a  particular  service,  that 
this  man  took  up  the  problem  of  rubber.  The 
words  quoted  are  a  fitting  preface  for  the  story  of 
the  years  that  followed,  which  is  a  tale  of  endurance 
and  persistent  activity  under  sufferings  and  dis- 
appointments such  as  are  scarcely  paralleled  even 
in  the  pages  of  invention,  darkened  as  they  often 
are  by  poverty  and  defeat. 

Charles  Goodyear  was  born  at  New  Haven, 
December  29,  1800,  the  son  of  Amasa  Goodyear 
and  descendant  of  Stephen  Goodyear  who  was 
associated  with  Theophilus  Eaton,  the  first  gover- 
nor of  the  Puritan  colony  of  New  Haven.  It 
was  natural  that  Charles  should  turn  his  mind  to 


166  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

invention,  as  he  did  even  when  a  boy;  for  his  father, 
a  pioneer  in  the  manufacture  of  American  hard- 
ware, was  the  inventor  of  a  steel  hayfork  which 
replaced  the  heavy  iron  fork  of  prior  days  and  light- 
ened and  expedited  the  labor  of  the  fields.  When 
Charles  was  seven  his  father  moved  to  Naugatuck 
and  manufactured  the  first  pearl  buttons  made  in 
America;  during  the  War  of  1812  the  Goodyear 
factory  supplied  metal  buttons  to  the  Govern- 
ment. Charles,  a  studious,  serious  boy,  was  the 
close  companion  of  his  father.  His  deeply  religious 
nature  manifested  itself  early,  and  he  joined  the 
Congregational  Church  when  he  was  sixteen.  It 
was  at  first  his  intention  to  enter  the  ministry, 
which  seemed  to  him  to  offer  the  most  useful  career 
of  service,  but,  changing  his  mind,  he  went  to  Phila- 
delphia to  learn  the  hardware  business  and  on 
coming  of  age  was  admitted  to  partnership  in  a 
firm  established  there  by  his  father.  The  firm 
prospered  for  a  time,  but  an  injudicious  extension 
of  credit  led  to  its  suspension.  So  it  happened  that 
Goodyear  in  1834,  when  he  became  interested  in 
rubber,  was  an  insolvent  debtor,  liable,  under  the 
laws  of  the  time,  to  imprisonment.  Soon  after- 
ward, indeed,  he  was  lodged  in  the  Debtor's  Prison 
in  Philadelphia. 


THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER  167 

It  would  seem  an  inauspicious  hour  to  begin  a 
search  which  might  lead  him  on  in  poverty  for 
years  and  end  nowhere.  But,  having  seen  the  need 
for  perfect  rubber,  the  thought  had  come  to  him, 
with  the  force  of  a  religious  conviction,  that  "an 
object  so  desirable  and  so  important,  and  so  neces- 
sary to  man's  comfort,  as  the  making  of  gum- 
elastic  available  to  his  use,  was  most  certainly 
placed  within  his  reach."  Thereafter  he  never 
doubted  that  God  had  called  him  to  this  task  and 
that  his  efforts  would  be  crowned  with  success. 
Concerning  his  prison  experiences,  of  which  the 
first  was  not  to  be  the  last,  he  says  that  "notwith- 
standing the  mortification  attending  such  a  trial," 
if  the  prisoner  has  a  real  aim  "for  which  to  live  and 
hope  over  he  may  add  firmness  to  hope,  and  derive 
lasting  advantage  by  having  proved  to  himself 
that,  with  a  clear  conscience  and  a  high  purpose,  a 
man  may  be  as  happy  within  prison  walls  as  in 
any  other  (even  the  most  fortunate)  circumstances 
in  life."  With  this  spirit  he  met  every  reverse 
throughout  the  ten  hard  years  that  followed. 

Luckily,  as  he  says,  his  first  experiments  re- 
quired no  expensive  equipment.  Fingers  were  the 
best  tools  for  working  the  gum.  The  prison  officials 
allowed  him  a  bench  and  a  marble  slab,  a  friend 


168  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

procured  him  a  few  dollars'  worth  of  gum,  which 
sold  then  at  five  cents  a  pound,  and  his  wife  con- 
tributed her  rolling  pin.  That  was  the  beginning. 
For  a  time  he  believed  that,  by  mixing  the  raw 
gum  with  magnesia  and  boiling  it  in  lime,  he  had 
overcome  the  stickiness  which  was  the  inherent 
difficulty.  He  made  some  sheets  of  white  rubber 
which  were  exhibited,  and  also  some  articles  for 
sale.  His  hopes  were  dashed  when  he  found  that 
weak  acid,  such  as  apple  juice  or  vinegar,  destroyed 
his  new  product.  Then  in  1836  he  found  that  the 
application  of  aqua  fortis,  or  nitric  acid,  produced 
a  "curing"  effect  on  the  rubber  and  thought  that 
he  had  discovered  the  secret.  Finding  a  partner 
with  capital,  he  leased  an  abandoned  rubber  fac- 
tory on  Staten  Island.  But  his  partner's  fortune 
was  swept  away  in  the  panic  of  1837,  leaving  Good- 
year again  an  insolvent  debtor.  Later  he  found 
another  partner  and  went  to  manufacturing  in  the 
deserted  plant  at  Roxbury,  with  an  order  from  the 
Government  for  a  large  number  of  mail  bags.  This 
order  was  given  wide  publicity  and  it  aroused  the 
interest  of  manufacturers  throughout  the  country. 
But  by  the  time  the  goods  were  ready  for  delivery 
the  first  bags  made  had  rotted  from  their  handles. 
Only  the  surface  of  the  rubber  had  been  "cured." 


THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER  169 

This  failure  was  the  last  straw,  as  far  as  Good- 
year's  friends  were  concerned.  Only  his  patient 
and  devoted  wife  stood  by  him;  she  had  labored, 
known  want,  seen  her  children  go  hungry  to  school, 
but  she  seems  never  to  have  reproached  her  hus- 
band nor  to  have  doubted  his  ultimate  success. 
The  gentleness  and  tenderness  of  his  deportment 
in  the  home  made  his  family  cling  to  him  with 
deep  affection  and  bear  willingly  any  sacrifice  for 
his  sake;  though  his  successive  failures  generally 
meant  a  return  of  the  inventor  to  the  debtor's 
prison  and  the  casting  of  his  family  upon  charity. 

The  nitric  acid  process  had  not  solved  the  prob- 
lem but  it  had  been  a  real  step  forward.  It  was  in 
the  year  1839,  by  an  accident,  that  he  discovered 
the  true  process  of  vulcanization  which  cured  not 
the  surface  alone  but  the  whole  mass.  He  was  try- 
ing to  harden  the  gum  by  boiling  it  with  sulphur 
on  his  wife's  cookstove  when  he  let  fall  a  lump 
of  it  on  the  red  hot  iron  top.  It  vulcanized  in- 
stantly. This  was  an  accident  which  only  Goodyear 
could  have  interpreted.  And  it  was  the  last.  The 
strange  substance  from  the  jungles  of  the  tropics 
had  been  mastered.  It  remained,  however,  to  per- 
fect the  process,  to  ascertain  the  accurate  formula 
and  the  exact  degree  of  heat. 


170  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

The  Goodyears  were  so  poor  during  these  years 
that  they  received  at  any  time  a  barrel  of  flour 
from  a  neighbor  thankfully.  There  is  a  tradition 
that  on  one  occasion,  when  Goodyear  desired  to 
cross  between  Staten  Island  and  New  York,  he  had 
to  give  his  umbrella  to  the  ferry  master  as  security 
for  his  fare,  and  that  the  name  of  the  ferry  mas- 
ter was  Cornelius  Vanderbilt,  "a  man  who  made 
much  money  because  he  took  few  chances."  The 
incident  may  easily  have  occurred,  though  the  ferry 
master  could  hardly  have  been  Vanderbilt  himself, 
linless  it  had  been  at  an  earlier  date.  Another  tra- 
dition says  that  one  of  Goodyear's  neighbors  de- 
scribed him  to  an  inquisitive  stranger  thus:  "You 
will  know  him  when  you  see  him;  he  has  on  an  In- 
dia rubber  cap,  stock,  coat,  vest,  and  shoes,  and  an 
India  rubber  purse  without  a  cent  in  it!" 

Goodyear's  trials  were  only  beginning.  He  had 
the  secret  at  last,  but  nobody  would  believe  him. 
He  had  worn  out  even  the  most  sanguine  of  his 
friends.  "  That  such  indifference  to  this  discovery, 
and  many  incidents  attending  it,  could  have  ex- 
isted in  an  intelligent  and  benevolent  community," 
wrote  Goodyear  later,  "can  only  be  accounted  for 
by  existing  circumstances  in  that  community. 
The  great  losses  that  had  been  sustained  in  the 


THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER  171 

manufacture  of  gum-elastic:  the  length  of  time  the 
inventor  had  spent  in  what  appeared  to  them  to 
be  entirely  fruitless  efforts  to  accomplish  anything 
with  it;  added  to  his  recent  misfortunes  and  disap- 
pointments, all  conspired,  with  his  utter  destitu- 
tion, to  produce  a  state  of  things  as  unfavorable  to 
the  promulgation  of  the  discovery  as  can  well  be 
imagined.  He,  however,  felt  in  duty  bound  to  beg 
hi  earnest,  if  need  be,  sooner  than  that  the  discov- 
ery should  be  lost  to  the  world  and  to  himself. 
.  .  .  How  he  subsisted  at  this  period  charity 
alone  can  tell,  for  it  is  as  well  to  call  things  by  their 
right  names;  and  it  is  little  else  than  charity  when 
the  lender  looks  upon  what  he  parts  with  as  a  gift. 
The  pawning  or  selling  some  relic  of  better  days  or 
some  article  of  necessity  was  a  frequent  expedient. 
His  library  had  long  since  disappeared,  but  shortly 
after  the  discovery  of  this  process,  he  collected  and 
sold  at  auction  the  schoolbooks  of  his  children, 
which  brought  him  the  trifling  sum  of  five  dollars; 
small  as  the  amount  was,  it  enabled  him  to  proceed. 
At  this  step  he  did  not  hesitate.  The  occasion, 
and  the  certainty  of  success,  warranted  the  meas- 
ure which,  in  other  circumstances,  would  have 
been  sacrilege." 

His  itinerary  during  those  years  is  eloquent. 


172  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

Wherever  there  was  a  man,  who  had  either  a  grain 
of  faith  in  rubber  or  a  little  charity  for  a  frail  and 
penniless  monomaniac,  thither  Goodyear  made  his 
way.  The  goal  might  be  an  attic  room  or  shed  to 
live  in  rent  free,  or  a  few  dollars  for  a  barrel  of  flour 
for  the  family  and  a  barrel  of  rubber  for  himself,  or 
permission  to  use  a  factory's  ovens  after  hours  and 
to  hang  his  rubber  over  the  steam  valves  while 
work  went  on.  From  Woburn  in  1839,  the  year  of 
his  great  discovery,  he  went  to  Lynn,  from  Lynn 
back  to  the  deserted  factory  at  Roxbury.  Again  to 
Woburn,  to  Boston,  to  Northampton,  to  Spring- 
field, to  Naugatuck;  in  five  years  as  many  removes. 
When  he  lacked  boat  or  railway  fare,  and  he  gener- 
ally did,  he  walked  through  winds  and  rains  and 
drifting  snow,  begging  shelter  at  some  cottage  or 
farm  where  a  window  lamp  gleamed  kindly. 

Goodyear  took  out  his  patent  in  1844.  The  pro- 
cess he  invented  has  been  changed  little,  if  at  all, 
from  that  day  to  this.  He  also  invented  the  perfect 
India  rubber  cloth  by  mixing  fiber  with  the  gum  — 
a  discovery  he  considered  rightly  as  secondary  in 
importance  only  to  vulcanization.  When  he  died 
in  1860  he  had  taken  out  sixty  patents  on  rubber 
manufactures.  He  had  seen  his  invention  applied 
to  several  hundred  uses,  giving  employment  to 


THE  STORY  OF  RUBBER  173 

sixty  thousand  persons,  producing  annually  eight 
million  dollars'  worth  of  merchandise — numbers 
which  would  form  but  a  fraction  of  the  rubber 
statistics  of  today. 

Everybody,  the  whole  civilized  world  round, 
uses  rubber  in  one  form  or  another.  And  rubber 
makes  a  belt  around  the  world  in  its  natural  as  well 
as  in  its  manufactured  form.  The  rubber-bearing 
zone  winds  north  and  south  of  the  equator  through 
both  hemispheres.  In  South  America  rubber  is  the 
latex  of  certain  trees,  in  Africa  of  trees  and  vines. 
The  best  "wild"  rubber  still  comes  from  Para  in 
Brazil.  It  is  gathered  and  prepared  for  shipment 
there  today  by  the  same  methods  the  natives  used 
four  hundred  years  ago.  The  natives  in  their  ca- 
noes follow  the  watercourses  into  the  jungles.  They 
cut  V-shaped  or  spiral  incisions  in  the  trunks  of  the 
trees  that  grow  sheer  to  sixty  feet  before  spreading 
their  shade.  At  the  base  of  the  incisions  they  affix 
small  clay  cups,  like  swallows'  nests.  Over  the 
route  they  return  later  with  large  gourds  in  which 
they  collect  the  fluid  from  the  clay  cups.  The 
filled  gourds  they  carry  to  their  village  of  grass  huts 
and  there  they  build  their  smoky  fires  of  oily  palm 
nuts.  Dipping  paddles  into  the  fluid  gum  they 
turn  and  harden  it,  a  coating  at  a  time,  in  the 


174  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

smoke.  The  rubber  "biscuit"  is  cut  from  the 
paddle  with  a  wet  knife  when  the  desired  thickness 
has  been  attained. 

Goodyear  lived  for  sixteen  years  after  his  dis- 
covery of  the  vulcanization  process.  During  the 
last  six  he  was  unable  to  walk  without  crutches. 
He  was  indifferent  to  money.  To  make  his  dis- 
coveries of  still  greater  service  to  mankind  was  his 
whole  aim.  It  was  others  who  made  fortunes  out 
of  his  inventions.  Goodyear  died  a  poor  man. 

In  his  book,  a  copy  of  which  was  printed  on  gum- 
elastic  sheets  and  bound  in  hard  rubber  carved,  he 
summed  up  his  philosophy  in  this  statement:  "The 
writer  is  not  disposed  to  repine  and  say  that  he  has 
planted  and  others  have  gathered  the  fruits.  The 
advantages  of  a  career  in  life  should  not  be  es- 
timated exclusively  by  the  standard  of  dollars  and 
cents,  as  it  is  too  often  done.  Man  has  just  cause 
for  regret  when  he  sows  and  no  one  reaps." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

PIONEERS   OF  THE   MACHINE  SHOP 

THERE  is  a  tinge  of  melancholy  about  the  life  of 
such  a  pioneer  as  Oliver  Evans,  that  early  Amer- 
ican mechanic  of  great  genius,  whose  story  is 
briefly  outlined  in  a  preceding  chapter.  Here  was 
a  man  of  imagination  and  sensibility,  as  well  as 
practical  power;  conferring  great  benefits  on  his 
countrymen,  yet  in  chronic  poverty;  derided  by  his 
neighbors,  robbed  by  his  beneficiaries;  his  property, 
the  fruit  of  his  brain  and  toil,  in  the  end  malevo- 
lently destroyed.  The  lot  of  the  man  who  sees 
far  ahead  of  his  time,  and  endeavors  to  lead  his  fel- 
lows in  ways  for  which  they  are  not  prepared,  has 
always  been  hard. 

John  Stevens,  too,  as  we  have  seen,  met  defeat 
when  he  tried  to  thrust  a  steam  railroad  on  a  coun- 
try that  was  not  yet  ready  for  it.  His  mechanical 
conceptions  were  not  marked  by  genius  equal  to 
that  of  Evans,  but  they  were  still  too  far  advanced 

175 


176  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

to  be  popular.  The  career  of  Stevens,  however, 
presents  a  remarkable  contrast  to  that  of  Evans  in 
other  respects.  Evans  was  born  poor  (in  Delaware, 
1755)  and  remained  poor  all  his  life.  Stevens  was 
born  rich  (in  New  York  City,  1749)  and  remained 
rich  all  his  life.  Of  the  family  of  Evans  nothing  is 
known  either  before  or  after  him.  Stevens,  on  the 
contrary,  belonged  to  one  of  the  best  known  and 
most  powerful  families  in  America.  His  grand- 
father, John  Stevens  I,  came  from  England  in  1699 
and  made  himself  a  lawyer  and  a  great  landowner. 
His  father,  John  Stevens  II,  was  a  member  from 
New  Jersey  of  the  Continental  Congress  and  pre- 
sided at  the  New  Jersey  Convention  which  ratified 
the  Constitution. 

John  Stevens  III  was  graduated  at  King's  Col- 
lege (Columbia)  in  1768.  He  held  public  offices 
during  the  Revolution.  To  him,  perhaps  more 
than  to  any  other  man,  is  due  the  Patent  Act  of 
1790,  for  the  protection  of  American  inventors,  for 
that  law  was  the  result  of  a  petition  which  he  made 
to  Congress  and  which,  being  referred  to  a  com- 
mittee, was  favorably  reported.  Thus  we  may  re- 
gard John  Stevens  as  the  father  of  the  American 
patent  law. 

John  Stevens  owned  the  old  Dutch  farm  on  the 


Painting  in  the  possession  of  the  American  Society  of  Mechanical 
Engineers,  New  York. 


PIONEERS  OF  THE  MACHINE  SHOP  177 

Hudson  on  which  the  city  of  Hoboken  now  stands. 
The  place  had  been  in  possession  of  the  Bayard 
family,  but  William  Bayard,  who  lived  there  at  the 
time  of  the  Revolution,  was  a  Loyalist,  and  his 
house  on  Castle  Point  was  burned  down  and  his 
estate  confiscated.  After  the  Revolution  Stevens 
acquired  the  property.  He  laid  it  out  as  a  town  in 
1804,  made  it  his  summer  residence,  and  estab- 
lished there  the  machine  shops  in  which  he  and  his 
sons  carried  on  their  mechanical  experiments. 

These  shops  were  easily  the  largest  and  best- 
equipped  in  the  Union  when  in  1838  John  Stevens 
died  at  the  age  of  ninety.  The  four  brothers,  John 
Cox,  Robert  Livingston,  James  Alexander,  and 
Edwin  Augustus,  worked  harmoniously  together. 
"No  one  ever  heard  of  any  quarrel  or  dissension  in 
the  Stevens  family.  They  were  workmen  them- 
selves, and  they  were  superior  to  their  subordinates 
because  they  were  better  engineers  and  better  men 
of  business  than  any  other  folk  who  up  to  that  time 
had  undertaken  the  business  of  transportation  in 
the  United  States."1 

The  youngest  of  these  brothers,  Edwin  Augus- 
tus Stevens,  dying  in  1868,  left  a  large  part  of  his 

1  Abram  S.  Hewitt.     Quoted  iu  lies.  Leading  American  In- 
ventors, p.  37. 
12 


178  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

fortune  to  found  the  Stevens  Institute  of  Technol- 
ogy, afterwards  erected  at  Hoboken  not  far  from  the 
old  family  homestead  on  Castle  Point.  The  me- 
chanical star  of  the  family,  however,  was  the  second 
brother,  Robert  Livingston  Stevens,  whose  many 
inventions  made  for  the  great  improvement  of 
transportation  both  by  land  and  water.  For  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  from  1815  to  1840,  he  was  the 
foremost  builder  of  steamboats  in  America,  and 
under  his  hand  the  steamboat  increased  amazingly 
in  speed  and  efficiency.  He  made  great  contribu- 
tions to  the  railway.  The  first  locomotives  ran 
upon  wooden  stringers  plated  with  strap  iron.  A 
loose  end  —  "a  snakehead"  it  was  called  —  some- 
times curled  up  and  pierced  through  the  floor  of  a 
car,  causing  a  wreck.  The  solid  metal  T-rail,  now 
in  universal  use,  was  designed  by  Stevens  and  was 
first  used  on  the  Camden  and  Amboy  Railroad,  of 
which  he  was  president  and  his  brother  Edwin 
treasurer  and  manager.  The  swivel  truck  and  the 
cow-catcher,  the  modern  method  of  attaching  rails 
to  ties,  the  vestibule  car,  and  many  improvements 
in  the  locomotive  were  also  first  introduced  on  the 
Stevens  road. 

The  Stevens  brothers  exerted  their  influence  also 
on  naval  construction.     A  double  invention  of 


PIONEERS  OF  THE  MACHINE  SHOP  179 

Robert  and  Edwin,  the  forced  draft,  to  augment 
steam  power  and  save  coal,  and  the  air-tight  fire- 
room,  which  they  applied  to  their  own"  vessels,  was 
afterwards  adopted  by  all  navies.  Robert  designed 
and  projected  an  ironclad  battleship,  the  first  one 
in  the  world.  This  vessel,  called  the  Stevens  Bat- 
tery, was  begun  by  authority  of  the  Government  in 
1842;  but,  owing  to  changes  in  the  design  and  in- 
adequate appropriations  by  Congress,  it  was  never 
launched.  It  lay  for  many  years  in  the  basin  at 
Hoboken  an  unfinished  hulk.  Robert  died  in  1856. 
On  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  Edwin  tried  to 
revive  the  interest  of  the  Government,  but  by  that 
time  the  design  of  the  Stevens  Battery  was  obso- 
lete, and  Edwin  Stevens  was  an  old  man.  So  the 
honors  for  the  construction  of  the  first  ironclad 
man-of-war  to  fight  and  win  a  battle  went  to  John 
Ericsson,  that  other  great  inventor,  who  built  the 
famous  Monitor  for  the  Union  Government. 

Carlyle's  oft-quoted  term,  "Captains  of  Indus- 
try," may  fittingly  be  applied  to  the  Stevens 
family.  Strong,  masterful,  and  farseeing,  they 
used  ideas,  their  own  and  those  of  others,  in  a  large 
way,  and  were  able  to  succeed  where  more  timor- 
ous inventors  failed.  Without  the  stimulus  of  pov- 
erty they  achieved  success,  making  in  their  shops 


180  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

that  combination  of  men  and  material  which  not 
only  added  to  their  own  fortunes  but  also  served 
the  world. 

We  left  Eli  Whitney  defeated  in  his  efforts  to  di- 
vert to  himself  some  adequate  share  of  the  untold 
riches  arising  from  his  great  invention  of  the  cot- 
ton gin.  Whitney,  however,  had  other  sources  of 
profit  in  his  own  character  and  mechanical  ability. 
As  early  as  1798  he  had  turned  his  talents  to  the 
manufacture  of  firearms.  He  had  established  his 
shops  at  Whitney ville,  near  New  Haven;  and  it  was 
there  that  he  worked  out  another  achievement  quite 
as  important  economically  as  the  cotton  gin,  even 
though  the  immediate  consequences  were  less  spec- 
tacular: namely,  the  principle  of  standardization 
or  interchangeability  in  manufacture. 

This  principle  is  the  very  foundation  today  of  all 
American  large-scale  production.  The  manufac- 
turer produces  separately  thousands  of  copies  of 
every  part  of  a  complicated  machine,  confident 
that  an  equal  number  of  the  complete  machine  will 
be  assembled  and  set  in  motion.  The  owner  of  a 
motor  car,  a  reaper,  a  tractor,  or  a  sewing  machine, 
orders,  perhaps  by  telegraph  or  telephone,  a  broken 
or  lost  part,  taking  it  for  granted  that  the  new  part 


PIONEERS  OF  THE  MACHINE  SHOP  181 

can  be  fitted  easily  and  precisely  into  the  place  of 
the  old. 

Though  it  is  probable  that  this  idea  of  standard- 
ization, or  interchangeability,  originated  independ- 
ently in  Whitney's  mind,  and  though  it  is  certain 
that  he  and  one  of  his  neighbors,  who  will  be  men- 
tioned presently,  were  the  first  manufacturers  in 
the  world  to  carry  it  out  successfully  in  practice, 
yet  it  must  be  noted  that  the  idea  was  not  entirely 
new.  We  are  told  that  the  system  was  already  in 
operation  in  England  in  the  manufacture  of  ship's 
blocks.  From  no  less  an  authority  than  Thomas 
Jefferson  we  learn  that  a  French  mechanic  had 
previously  conceived  the  same  idea.*  But,  as  no 
general  result  whatever  came  from  the  idea  in 
either  France  or  England,  the  honors  go  to  Whit- 
ney and  North,  since  they  carried  it  to  such  com- 
plete success  that  it  spread  to  other  branches  of 
manufacturing.  And  in  the  face  of  opposition. 
When  Whitney  wrote  that  his  leading  object  was 
"to  substitute  correct  and  effective  operations  of 
machinery  for  that  skill  of  the  artist  which  is  ac- 
quired only  by  long  practice  and  experience,"  in 
order  to  make  the  same  parts  of  different  guns  "as 

1  See  the  letter  from  Jefferson  to  John  Jay,  of  April  30,  1785, 
cited  in  Roe,  English  and  American  Tool  Builders,  p.  129. 


182  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

much  like  each  other  as  the  successive  impressions 
of  a  copper-plate  engraving,"  he  was  laughed  to 
scorn  by  the  ordnance  officers  of  France  and  Eng- 
land. "Even  the  Washington  officials,"  says  Roe, 
"were  sceptical  and  became  uneasy  at  advancing 
so  much  money  without  a  single  gun  having  been 
completed,  and  Whitney  went  to  Washington,  tak- 
ing with  him  ten  pieces  of  each  part  of  a  mus- 
ket. He  exhibited  these  to  the  Secretary  of  War 
and  the  army  officers  interested,  as  a  succession 
of  piles  of  different  parts.  Selecting  indiscrimin- 
ately from  each  of  the  piles,  he  put  together  ten 
muskets,  an  achievement  which  was  looked  on 
with  amazement."1 

While  Whitney  worked  out  his  plans  at  Whitney- 
ville,  Simeon  North,  another  Connecticut  mechanic 
and  a  gunmaker  by  trade,  adopted  the  same  sys- 
tem. North's  first  shop  was  at  Berlin.  He  after- 
wards moved  to  Middletown.  Like  Whitney,  he 
used  methods  far  in  advance  of  the  time.  Both 
Whitney  and  North  helped  to  establish  the  United 
States  Arsenals  at  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  and 
at  Harper's  Ferry,  Virginia,  in  which  their  meth- 
ods were  adopted.  Both  the  Whitney  and  North 
plants  survived  their  founders.  Just  before  the 

1  Roe,  English  and  American  Tool  Builders,  p.  133. 


PIONEERS  OF  THE  MACHINE  SHOP  183 

Mexican  War  the  Whitney  plant  began  to  use  steel 
for  gun  barrels,  and  Jefferson  Davis,  Colonel  of  the 
Mississippi  Rifles,  declared  that  the  new  guns  were 
"the  best  rifles  which  had  ever  been  issued  to  any 
regiment  in  the  world."  Later,  when  Davis  be- 
came Secretary  of  War,  he  issued  to  the  regular 
army  the  same  weapon. 

The  perfection  of  Whitney's  tools  and  machines 
made  it  possible  to  employ  workmen  of  little  skill 
or  experience.  "Indeed  so  easy  did  Mr.  Whitney 
find  it  to  instruct  new  and  inexperienced  workmen, 
that  he  uniformly  preferred  to  do  so,  rather  than 
to  combat  the  prejudices  of  those  who  had  learned 
the  business  under  a  different  system." x  This  reli- 
ance upon  the  machine  for  precision  and  speed  has 
been  a  distinguishing  mark  of  American  manufac- 
ture. A  man  or  a  woman  of  little  actual  mechan- 
ical skill  may  make  an  excellent  machine  tender, 
learning  to  perform  a  few  simple  motions  with 
great  rapidity. 

Whitney  married  in  1817  Miss  Henrietta  Ed- 
wards, daughter  of  Judge  Pierpont  Edwards,  of 
New  Haven,  and  granddaughter  of  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards. His  business  prospered,  and  his  high  char- 
acter, agreeable  manners,  and  sound  judgment  won 

1  Denison  Olmstead,  Memoir,  cited  by  Roe.  p.  169. 


184  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

for  him  the  highest  regard  of  all  who  knew  him; 
and  he  had  a  wide  circle  of  friends.  It  is  said  that 
he  was  on  intimate  terms  with  every  President  of 
the  United  States  from  George  Washington  to  John 
Quincy  Adams.  But  his  health  had  been  impaired 
by  hardships  endured  in  the  South,  in  the  long 
struggle  over  the  cotton  gin,  and  he  died  in  1825, 
at  the  age  of  fifty-nine.  The  business  which  he 
founded  remained  in  his  family  for  ninety  years. 
It  was  carried  on  after  his  death  by  two  of  his  neph- 
ews and  then  by  his  son,  until  1888,  when  it  was 
sold  to  the  Winchester  Repeating  Arms  Company 
of  New  Haven. 

Here  then,  in  these  early  New  England  gun- 
shops,  was  born  the  American  system  of  inter- 
changeable manufacture.  Its  growth  depended 
upon  the  machine  tool,  that  is,  the  machine  for 
making  machines.  Machine  tools,  of  course,  did 
not  originate  in  America.  English  mechanics  were 
making  machines  for  cutting  metal  at  least  a  gen- 
eration before  Whitney.  One  of  the  earliest  of 
these  English  pioneers  was  John  Wilkinson,  inven- 
tor and  maker  of  the  boring  machine  which  enabled 
Boulton  and  Watt  in  1776  to  bring  their  steam 
engine  to  the  point  of  practicability.  Without 
this  machine  Watt  found  it  impossible  to  bore  his 


PIONEERS  OF  THE  MACHINE  SHOP  185 

cylinders  with  the  necessary  degree  of  accuracy. l 
From  this  one  fact,  that  the  success  of  the  steam 
engine  depended  upon  the  invention  of  a  new  tool, 
we  may  judge  of  what  a  great  part  the  inventors  of 
machine  tools,  of  whom  thousands  are  unnamed 
and  unknown,  have  played  in  the  industrial  world. 

So  it  was  in  the  shops  of  the  New  England  gun- 
makers  that  machine  tools  were  first  made  of  such 
variety  and  adaptability  that  they  could  be  applied 
generally  to  other  branches  of  manufacturing;  and 
so  it  was  that  the  system  of  interchangeable  manu- 
facture arose  as  a  distinctively  American  develop- 
ment. We  have  already  seen  how  England's  policy 
of  keeping  at  home  the  secrets  of  her  machinery  led 
to  the  independent  development  of  the  spindles  and 
looms  of  New  England.  The  same  policy  affected 
the  tool  industry  in  America  in  the  same  way  and 
bred  in  the  new  country  a  race  of  original  and 
resourceful  mechanics. 

One  of  these  pioneers  was  Thomas  Blanchard, 
born  in  1788  on  a  farm  in  Worcester  County, 
Massachusetts,  the  home  also  of  Eli  Whitney  and 
Elias  Howe.  Tom  began  his  mechanical  career  at 
the  age  of  thirteen  by  inventing  a  device  to  pare 
apples.  At  the  age  of  eighteen  he  went  to  work  in 

1  Roe,  Englith  and  American  Tool  Buildert,  p.  1  el  seq. 


186  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

his  brother's  shop,  where  tacks  were  made  by  hand, 
and  one  day  took  to  his  brother  a  mechanical  de- 
vice for  counting  the  tacks  to  go  into  a  single  pack- 
et. The  invention  was  adopted  and  was  found  to 
save  the  labor  of  one  workman.  Tom's  next 
achievement  was  a  machine  to  make  tacks,  on 
which  he  spent  six  years  and  the  rights  of  which  he 
sold  for  five  thousand  dollars.  It  was  worth  far 
more,  for  it  revolutionized  the  tack  industry,  but 
such  a  sum  was  to  young  Blanchard  a  great  fortune. 

The  tack-making  machine  gave  Blanchard  a 
reputation,  and  he  was  presently  sought  out  by  a 
gun  manufacturer,  to  see  whether  he  could  improve 
the  lathe  for  turning  the  barrels  of  the  guns.  Blan- 
chard could;  and  did.  His  next  problem  was  to 
invent  a  lathe  for  turning  the  irregular  wooden 
stocks.  Here  he  also  succeeded  and  produced  a 
lathe  that  would  copy  precisely  and  rapidly  any 
pattern.  It  is  from  this  invention  that  the  name  of 
Blanchard  is  best  known.  The  original  machine  is 
preserved  in  the  United  States  Armory  at  Spring- 
field, to  which  Blanchard  was  attached  for  many 
years,  and  where  scores  of  the  descendants  of  his 
copying  lathe  may  be  seen  in  action  today. 

Turning  gunstocks  was,  of  course,  only  one  of  the 
many  uses  of  Blanchard's  copying  lathe.  Its  chief 


PIONEERS  OF  THE  MACHINE  SHOP  187 

use,  in  fact,  was  in  the  production  of  wooden  lasts 
for  the  shoemakers  of  New  England,  but  it  was 
applied  to  many  branches  of  wood  manufacture, 
and  later  on  the  same  principle  was  applied  to  the 
shaping  of  metal. 

Blanchard  was  a  man  of  many  ideas.  He  built 
a  steam  vehicle  for  ordinary  roads  and  was  an  early 
advocate  of  railroads;  he  built  steamboats  to  ply 
upon  the  Connecticut  and  incidentally  produced  in 
connection  with  these  his  most  profitable  inven- 
tion, a  machine  to  bend  ship's  timbers  without 
splintering  them.  The  later  years  of  his  life  were 
spent  in  Boston,  and  he  often  served  as  a  patent  ex- 
pert in  the  courts,  where  his  wide  knowledge,  hard 
common  sense,  incisive  speech,  and  homely  wit 
made  him  a  welcome  witness. 

We  now  glance  at  another  New  England  inven- 
tor, Samuel  Colt,  the  man  who  carried  Whitney's 
conceptions  to  transcendent  heights,  the  most 
dashing  and  adventurous  of  all  the  pioneers  of  the 
machine  shop  in  America.  If  "the  American  fron- 
tier was  Elizabethan  in  quality,"  there  was  surely 
a  touch  of  the  Elizabethan  spirit  on  the  man  whose 
invention  so  greatly  affected  the  character  of  that 
frontier.  Samuel  Colt  was  born  at  Hartford  in 
1814  and  died  there  in  1862 at  the  ageof  forty-eight, 


188  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

leaving  behind  him  a  famous  name  and  a  colos- 
sal industry  of  his  own  creation.  His  father  was  a 
small  manufacturer  of  silk  and  woolens  at  Hart- 
ford, and  the  boy  entered  the  factory  at  a  very 
early  age.  At  school  in  Amherst  a  little  later,  he 
fell  under  the  displeasure  of  his  teachers.  At  thir- 
teen he  took  to  sea,  as  a  boy  before  the  mast,  on  the 
East  India  voyage  to  Calcutta.  It  was  on  this  voy- 
age that  he  conceived  the  idea  of  the  revolver  and 
whittled  out  a  wooden  model.  On  his  return  he 
went  into  his  father's  works  and  gained  a  superficial 
knowledge  of  chemistry  from  the  manager  of  the 
bleaching  and  dyeing  department.  Then  he  took  to 
the  road  for  three  years  and  traveled  from  Quebec 
to  New  Orleans  lecturing  on  chemistry  under  the 
name  of  "Dr.  Coult."  The  main  feature  of  his  lec- 
ture was  the  administration  of  nitrous  oxide  gas  to 
volunteers  from  the  audience,  whose  antics  and  the 
amusing  showman's  patter  made  the  entertainment 
very  popular. 

Colt's  ambition,  however,  soared  beyond  the 
occupation  of  itinerant  showman,  and  he  never  for- 
got his  revolver.  As  soon  as  he  had  money  enough, 
he  made  models  of  the  new  arm  and  took  out  his 
patents;  and,  having  enlisted  the  interest  of  capital, 
he  set  up  the  Patent  Arms  Company  at  Paterson, 


PIONEERS  OF  THE  MACHINE  SHOP   189 

New  Jersey,  to  manufacture  the  revolver.  He  did 
not  succeed  in  having  the  revolver  adopted  by  the 
Government,  for  the  army  officers  for  a  long  time 
objected  to  the  percussion  cap  (an  invention,  by 
the  way,  then  some  twenty  years  old,  which  was 
just  coming  into  use  and  without  which  Colt's 
revolver  would  not  have  been  practicable)  and 
thought  that  the  new  weapon  might  fail  in  an 
emergency.  Colt  found  a  market  in  Texas  and 
among  the  frontiersmen  who  were  fighting  the 
Seminole  War  in  Florida,  but  the  sales  were  in- 
sufficient, and  in  1842  the  company  was  obliged 
to  confess  insolvency  and  close  down  the  plant. 
Colt  bought  from  the  company  the  patent  of  the 
revolver,  which  was  supposed  to  be  worthless. 

Nothing  more  happened  until  after  the  outbreak 
of  the  Mexican  War  in  1846.  Then  came  a  loud 
call  from  General  Zachary  Taylor  for  a  supply  of 
Colt's  revolvers.  Colt  had  none.  He  had  sold  the 
last  one  to  a  Texas  ranger.  He  had  not  even  a 
model.  Yet  he  took  an  order  from  the  Govern- 
ment for  a  thousand  and  proceeded  to  construct  a 
model.  For  the  manufacture  of  the  revolvers  he 
arranged  with  the  Whitney  plant  at  Whitneyville. 
There  he  saw  and  scrutinized  every  detail  of  the 
factory  system  that  Eli  Whitney  had  established 


190  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

forty  years  earlier.  He  resolved  to  have  a  plant  of 
his  own  on  the  same  system  and  one  that  would  far 
surpass  Whitney's.  Next  year  (1848)  he  rented 
premises  in  Hartford.  His  business  prospered  and 
increased.  At  last  the  Government  demanded  his 
revolvers.  Within  five  years  he  had  procured  a 
site  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  acres  fronting  the 
Connecticut  River  at  Hartford,  and  had  there  be- 
gun the  erection  of  the  greatest  arms  factory  in 
the  world. 

Colt  was  a  captain  of  captains.  The  ablest  me- 
chanic and  industrial  organizer  in  New  England  at 
that  time  was  Elisha  K.  Root.  Colt  went  after 
him,  outbidding  every  other  bidder  for  his  services, 
and  brought  him  to  Hartford  to  supervise  the  erec- 
tion of  the  new  factory  and  set  up  its  machinery. 
Root  was  a  great  superintendent,  and  the  phe- 
nomenal success  of  the  Colt  factory  was  due  in  a 
marked  degree  to  him.  He  became  president  of  the 
company  after  Colt's  death  in  1862,  and  under  him 
were  trained  a  large  number  of  mechanics  and  in- 
ventors of  new  machine  tools,  who  afterwards 
became  celebrated  leaders  and  officers  in  the 
industrial  armies  of  the  country. 

The  spectacular  rise  of  the  Colt  factory  at  Hart- 
ford drew  the  attention  of  the  British  Government, 


PIONEERS  OF  THE  MACHINE  SHOP   191 

and  in  1854  Colt  was  invited  to  appear  in  London 
before  a  Parliamentary  Committee  on  Small  Arms. 
He  lectured  the  members  of  the  committee  as  if 
they  had  been  school  boys,  telling  them  that  the 
regular  British  gun  was  so  bad  that  he  would  be 
ashamed  to  have  it  come  from  his  shop.  Speaking 
of  a  plant  which  he  had  opened  in  London  the  year 
before  he  criticized  the  supposedly  skilled  British 
mechanic,  saying:  "I  began  here  by  employing  the 
highest-priced  men  that  I  could  find  to  do  difficult 
things,  but  I  had  to  remove  the  whole  of  these  high- 
priced  men.  Then  I  tried  the  cheapest  I  could  find, 
and  the  more  ignorant  a  man  was,  the  more  brains 
he  had  for  my  purpose;  and  the  result  was  this:  I 
had  men  now  in  my  employ  that  I  started  with  at 
two  shillings  a  day,  and  in  one  short  year  I  can 
not  spare  them  at  eight  shillings  a  day."  r  Colt's 
audacity,  however,  did  not  offend  the  members  of 
the  committee  and  they  decided  to  visit  his  Amer- 
ican factory  at  Hartford.  They  did;  and  were  so 
impressed  that  the  British  Government  purchased 
in  America  a  full  set  of  machines  for  the  manufac- 
ture of  arms  in  the  Royal  Small  Arms  factory  at 
Enfield,  England,  and  took  across  the  sea  American 
workmen  and  foremen  to  set  up  and  run  these 

1  Henry  Barnard,  Armtmear,  p.  871. 


192  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

machines.  A  demand  sprang  up  in  Europe  for  Blan- 
chard  copying  lathes  and  a  hundred  other  Amer- 
ican tools,  and  from  this  time  on  the  manufacture 
of  tools  and  appliances  for  other  manufacturers, 
both  at  home  and  abroad,  became  an  increasingly 
important  industry  of  New  England. 

The  system  which  the  gunmakers  worked  out 
and  developed  to  meet  their  own  requirements  was 
capable  of  indefinite  expansion.  It  was  easily 
adapted  to  other  kinds  of  manufacture.  So  it  was 
that  as  new  inventions  came  in  the  manufacturers 
of  these  found  many  of  the  needed  tools  ready  for 
them,  and  any  special  modifications  could  be  quick- 
ly made.  A  manufacturer  of  machine  tools  will 
produce  on  demand  a  device  to  perform  any  opera- 
tion, however  difficult  or  intricate.  Some  of  the 
machines  are  so  versatile  that  specially  designed 
sets  of  cutting  edges  will  adapt  them  to  almost 
any  work. 

Standardization,  due  to  the  machine  tool,  is  one 
of  the  chief  glories  of  American  manufacturing. 
Accurate  watches  and  clocks,  bicycles  and  motor 
cars,  innumerable  devices  to  save  labor  in  the  home, 
the  office,  the  shop,  or  on  the  farm,  are  within  the 
reach  of  all,  because  the  machine  tool,  tended  by 
labor  comparatively  unskilled,  does  the  greater 


CHARLES    COO  DYE  Ml 

Engraving  from  a  daguerreotype.      In    the  collection  of   L.   C. 
Handy,  Washington. 


KLI    W 
Kngraving  by  \V.  Iloogland  after  a  painting  by  King. 


PIONEERS  OF  THE  MACHINE  SHOP   193 

part  of  the  work  of  production.  In  the  crisis  of  the 
World  War,  American  manufacturers,  turning  from 
the  arts  of  peace,  promptly  adapted  their  plants 
to  the  manufacture  of  the  most  complicated  engines 
of  destruction,  which  were  produced  in  Europe 
only  by  skilled  machinists  of  the  highest  class. 

13 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE    FATHERS    OF   ELECTRICITY 

IT  may  startle  some  reader  to  be  told  that  the 
foundations  of  modern  electrical  science  were  de- 
finitely established  in  the  Elizabethan  Age.  The 
England  of  Elizabeth,  of  Shakespeare,  of  Drake 
and  the  sea-dogs,  is  seldom  thought  of  as  the  cradle 
of  the  science  of  electricity.  Nevertheless,  it  was; 
just  as  surely  as  it  was  the  birthplace  of  the  Shake- 
spearian drama,  of  the  Authorized  Version  of  the 
Bible,  or  of  that  maritime  adventure  and  colonial 
enterprise  which  finally  grew  and  blossomed  into 
the  United  States  of  America. 

The  accredited  father  of  the  science  of  electricity 
and  magnetism  is  William  Gilbert,  who  was  a 
physician  and  man  of  learning  at  the  court  of  Eliza- 
beth. Prior  to  him,  all  that  was  known  of  these 
phenomena  was  what  the  ancients  knew,  that  the 
lodestone  possessed  magnetic  properties  and  that 
amber  and  jet,  when  rubbed,  would  attract  bits  of 

194 


THE  FATHERS  OF  ELECTRICITY      195 

paper  or  other  substances  of  small  specific  gravity. 
Gilbert's  great  treatise  On  the  Magnet,  printed  in 
Latin  in  1600,  containing  the  fruits  of  his  researches 
and  experiments  for  many  years,  indeed  provided 
the  basis  for  a  new  science. 

On  foundations  well  and  truly  laid  by  Gilbert 
several  Europeans,  like  Otto  von  Guericke  of  Ger- 
many, Du  Fay  of  France,  and  Stephen  Gray  of 
England,  worked  before  Benjamin  Franklin  and 
added  to  the  structure  of  electrical  knowledge. 
The  Leyden  jar,  in  which  the  mysterious  force 
could  be  stored,  was  invented  in  Holland  in  1745 
and  in  Germany  almost  simultaneously. 

Franklin's  important  discoveries  are  outlined  in 
the  first  chapter  of  this  book.  He  found  out,  as  we 
have  seen,  that  electricity  and  lightning  are  one 
and  the  same,  and  in  the  lightning  rod  he  made 
the  first  practical  application  of  electricity.  After- 
wards Cavendish  of  England,  Coulomb  of  France, 
Galvani  of  Italy,  all  brought  new  bricks  to  the  pile. 
Following  them  came  a  group  of  master  builders, 
among  whom  may  be  mentioned:  Volta  of  Italy, 
Oersted  of  Denmark,  Ampere  of  France,  Ohm  of 
Germany,  Faraday  of  England,  and  Joseph  Henry 
of  America. 

Among  these  men,  who  were,  it  should  be  noted, 


196  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

theoretical  investigators,  rather  than  practical  in- 
ventors like  Morse,  or  Bell,  or  Edison,  the  Amer- 
ican Joseph  Henry  ranks  high.  Henry  was  born  at 
Albany  in  1799  and  was  educated  at  the  Albany 
Academy.  Intending  to  practice  medicine,  he 
studied  the  natural  sciences.  He  was  poor  and 
earned  his  daily  bread  by  private  tutoring.  He 
was  an  industrious  and  brilliant  student  and  soon 
gave  evidence  of  being  endowed  with  a  powerful 
mind.  He  was  appointed  in  1824  an  assistant  en- 
gineer for  the  survey  of  a  route  for  a  State  road, 
three  hundred  miles  long,  between  the  Hudson 
River  and  Lake  Erie.  The  experience  he  gained  in 
this  work  changed  the  course  of  his  career;  he  de- 
cided to  follow  civil  and  mechanical  engineering  in- 
stead of  medicine.  Then  in  1826  he  became  teach- 
er of  mathematics  and  natural  philosophy  in  the 
Albany  Academy. 

It  was  in  the  Albany  Academy  that  he  began 
that  wide  series  of  experiments  and  investigations 
which  touched  so  many  phases  of  the  great  problem 
of  electricity.  His  first  discovery  was  that  a  mag- 
net could  be  immensely  strengthened  by  winding 
it  with  insulated  wire.  He  was  the  first  to  em- 
ploy insulated  wire  wound  as  on  a  spool  and  was 
able  finally  to  make  a  magnet  which  would  lift 


THE  FATHERS  OF  ELECTRICITY      197 

thirty-five  hundred  pounds.  He  first  showed  the 
difference  between  "quantity"  magnets  composed 
of  short  lengths  of  wire  connected  in  parallel,  ex- 
cited by  a  few  large  cells,  and  "intensity"  magnets 
wound  with  a  single  long  wire  and  excited  by  a  bat- 
tery composed  of  cells  in  series.  This  was  an  orig- 
inal discovery,  greatly  increasing  both  the  imme- 
diate usefulness  of  the  magnet  and  its  possibilities 
for  future  experiments. 

The  learned  men  of  Europe,  Faraday,  Sturgeon, 
and  the  rest,  were  quick  to  recognize  the  value  of 
the  discoveries  of  the  young  Albany  schoolmaster. 
Sturgeon  magnanimously  said:  "Professor  Henry 
has  been  enabled  to  produce  a  magnetic  force  which 
totally  eclipses  every  other  in  the  whole  annals  of 
magnetism;  and  no  parallel  is  to  be  found  since  the 
miraculous  suspension  of  the  celebrated  Oriental 
imposter  in  his  iron  coffin."1 

Henry  also  discovered  the  phenomena  of  self 
induction  and  mutual  induction.  A  current  sent 
through  a  wire  in  the  second  story  of  the  building 
induced  currents  through  a  similar  wire  in  the  cel- 
lar two  floors  below.  In  this  discovery  Henry  an- 
ticipated Faraday  though  his  results  as  to  mutual 
induction  were  not  published  until  he  had  heard 

1  Philosophical  Magazine,  vol.  xi,  p.  199  (March,  1832). 


198  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

rumors  of  Faraday's  discovery,  which  he  thought 
to  be  something  different. 

The  attempt  to  send  signals  by  electricity  had 
been  made  many  times  before  Henry  became  inter- 
ested in  the  problem.  On  the  invention  of  Stur- 
geon's magnet  there  had  been  hopes  in  England  of 
a  successful  solution,  but  in  the  experiments  that 
followed  the  current  became  so  weak  after  a  few 
hundred  feet  that  the  idea  was  pronounced  imprac- 
ticable. Henry  strung  a  mile  of  fine  wire  in  the 
Academy,  placed  an  "intensity"  battery  at  one 
end,  and  made  the  armature  strike  a  bell  at  the 
other.  Thus  he  discovered  the  essential  principle 
of  the  electric  telegraph.  This  discovery  was  made 
in  1831,  the  year  before  the  idea  of  a  working  elec- 
tric telegraph  flashed  on  the  mind  of  Morse.  There 
was  no  occasion  for  the  controversy  which  took 
place  later  as  to  who  invented  the  telegraph.  That 
was  Morse's  achievement,  but  the  discovery  of  the 
great  fact,  which  startled  Morse  into  activity,  was 
Henry's  achievement.  In  Henry's  own  words: 
"This  was  the  first  discovery  of  the  fact  that  a  gal- 
vanic current  could  be  transmitted  to  a  great  dis- 
tance with  so  little  a  diminution  of  force  as  to  pro- 
duce mechanical  effects,  and  of  the  means  by  which 
the  transmission  could  be  accomplished.  I  saw 


THE  FATHERS  OF  ELECTRICITY      199 

that  the  electric  telegraph  was  now  practicable." 
He  says  further,  however:  "I  had  not  in  mind  any 
particular  form  of  telegraph,  but  referred  only  to 
the  general  fact  that  it  was  now  demonstrated  that  a 
galvanic  current  could  be  transmitted  to  great  dis- 
tances, with  sufficient  power  to  produce  mechanical 
effects  adequate  to  the  desired  object."1 

Henry  next  turned  to  the  possibility  of  a  magnetic 
engine  for  the  production  of  power  and  succeeded  in 
making  a  reciprocating-bar  motor,  on  which  he  in- 
stalled the  first  automatic  pole  changer,  or  commu- 
tator, ever  used  with  an  electric  battery.  He  did  not 
succeed  in  producing  direct  rotary  motion.  His  bar 
oscillated  like  the  walking  beam  of  a  steamboat. 

Henry  was  appointed  in  1832  Professor  of  Na- 
tural Philosophy  in  the  College  of  New  Jersey, 
better  known  today  as  Princeton  University. 
There  he  repeated  his  old  experiments  on  a  larger 
scale,  confirmed  Steinheil's  experiment  of  using  the 
earth  as  return  conductor,  showed  how  a  feeble  cur- 
rent would  be  strengthened,  and  how  a  small  mag- 
net could  be  used  as  a  circuit  maker  and  breaker. 
Here  were  the  principles  of  the  telegraph  relay  and 
the  dynamo. 

'Deposition  of  Joseph  Henry,  September  7,  1849.  printed  in 
Morse,  The  Electro-Magnetic  Telegraph,  p.  91. 


200  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

Why,  then,  if  the  work  of  Henry  was  so  import- 
ant, is  his  name  almost  forgotten,  except  by  men  of 
science,  and  not  given  to  any  one  of  the  practical 
applications  of  electricity?  The  answer  is  plain. 
Henry  was  an  investigator,  not  an  inventor.  He 
states  his  position  very  clearly:  "I  never  myself  at- 
tempted to  reduce  the  principles  to  practice,  or  to 
apply  any  of  my  discoveries  to  processes  in  the  arts. 
My  whole  attention  exclusive  of  my  duties  to  the 
College,  was  devoted  to  original  scientific  investi- 
gations, and  I  left  to  others  what  I  considered  in 
a  scientific  view  of  subordinate  importance  —  the 
application  of  my  discoveries  to  useful  purposes  in 
the  arts.  Besides  this  I  partook  of  the  feeling  com- 
mon to  men  of  science,  which  disinclines  them 
to  secure  to  themselves  the  advantages  of  their 
discoveries  by  a  patent." 

Then,  too,  his  talents  were  soon  turned  to  a  wider 
field.  The  bequest  of  James  Smithson,  that  far- 
sighted  Englishman,  who  left  his  fortune  to  the 
United  States  to  found  "the  Smithsonian  Institu- 
tion, for  the  increase  and  diffusion  of  knowledge 
among  men,"  was  responsible  for  the  diffusion  of 
Henry's  activities.  The  Smithsonian  Institution 
was  founded  at  Washington  in  1846,  and  Henry 
was  fittingly  chosen  its  Secretary,  that  is,  its  chief 


THE  FATHERS  OF  ELECTRICITY     201 

I 

executive  officer.  And  from  that  time  until  his 
death  in  1878,  over  thirty  years,  he  devoted  himself 
to  science  in  general. 

He  studied  terrestrial  magnetism  and  building 
materials.  He  reduced  meteorology  to  a  science, 
collecting  reports  by  telegraph,  made  the  first 
weather  map,  and  issued  forecasts  of  the  weather 
based  upon  definite  knowledge  rather  than  upon 
signs.  He  became  a  member  of  the  Lighthouse 
Board  in  1852  and  was  the  head  after  1871.  The 
excellence  of  marine  illuminants  and  fog  signals  to- 
day is  largely  due  to  his  efforts.  Though  he  was 
later  drawn  into  a  controversy  with  Morse  over  the 
credit  for  the  invention  of  the  telegraph,  he  used  his 
influence  to  procure  the  renewal  of  Morse's  patent. 
He  listened  with  attention  to  Alexander  Graham 
Bell,  who  had  the  idea  that  electric  wires  might  be 
made  to  carry  the  human  voice,  and  encouraged 
him  to  proceed  with  his  experiments.  "He  said," 
Bell  writes,  "that  he  thought  it  was  the  germ  of  a 
great  invention  and  advised  me  to  work  at  it  with- 
out publishing.  I  said  that  I  recognized  the  fact 
that  there  were  mechanical  difficulties  in  the  way 
that  rendered  the  plan  impracticable  at  the  pres- 
ent time.  I  added  that  I  felt  that  I  had  not  the 
electrical  knowledge  necessary  to  overcome  the 


202  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

difficulties.  His  laconic  answer  was,  'GET  IT!'  I 
cannot  tell  you  how  much  these  two  words  have 
encouraged  me." 

Henry  had  blazed  the  way  for  others  to  work  out 
the  principles  of  the  electric  motor,  and  a  few  ex- 
perimenters attempted  to  follow  his  lead.  Thomas 
Davenport,  a  blacksmith  of  Brandon,  Vermont, 
built  an  electric  car  in  1835,  which  he  was  able  to 
drive  on  the  road,  and  so  made  himself  the  pioneer 
of  the  automobile  in  America.  Twelve  years  later 
Moses  G.  Farmer  exhibited  at  various  places  in 
New  England  an  electric-driven  locomotive,  and  in 
1851  Charles  Graf  ton  Page  drove  an  electric  car,  on 
the  tracks  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad, 
from  Washington  to  Bladensburg,  at  the  rate  of 
nineteen  miles  an  hour.  But  the  cost  of  batteries 
was  too  great  and  the  use  of  the  electric  motor  in 
transportation  not  yet  practicable. 

The  great  principle  of  the  dynamo,  or  electric 
generator,  was  discovered  by  Faraday  and  Henry 
but  the  process  of  its  development  into  an  agency 
of  practical  power  consumed  many  years;  and  with- 
out the  dynamo  for  the  generation  of  power  the 
electric  motor  had  to  stand  still  and  there  could  be 
no  practicable  application  of  electricity  to  trans- 
portation, or  manufacturing,  or  lighting.  So  it  was 


THE  FATHERS  OF  ELECTRICITY      203 

that,  except  for  the  telegraph,  whose  story  is  told  in 
another  chapter,  there  was  little  more  American 
achievement  in  electricity  until  after  the  Civil  War. 

The  arc  light  as  a  practical  illuminating  device 
came  in  1878.  It  was  introduced  by  Charles  F. 
Brush,  a  young  Ohio  engineer  and  graduate  of  the 
University  of  Michigan.  Others  before  him  had 
attacked  the  problem  of  electric  lighting,  but  lack 
of  suitable  carbons  stood  in  the  way  of  their  suc- 
cess. Brush  overcame  the  chief  difficulties  and 
made  several  lamps  to  burn  in  series  from  one 
dynamo.  The  first  Brush  lights  used  for  street  il- 
lumination were  erected  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  and 
soon  the  use  of  arc  lights  became  general.  Other 
inventors  improved  the  apparatus,  but  still  there 
were  drawbacks.  For  outdoor  lighting  and  for 
large  halls  they  served  the  purpose,  but  they  could 
not  be  used  in  small  rooms.  Besides,  they  were  in 
series,  that  is,  the  current  passed  through  every 
lamp  in  turn,  and  an  accident  to  one  threw  the 
whole  series  out  of  action.  The  whole  problem 
of  indoor  lighting  was  to  be  solved  by  one  of 
America's  most  famous  inventors. 

The  antecedents  of  Thomas  Alva  Edison  in 
America  may  be  traced  back  to  the  time  when 
Franklin  was  beginning  his  career  as  a  printer  in 


204  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

Philadelphia.  The  first  American  Edisons  appear 
to  have  come  from  Holland  about  1730  and  set- 
tled on  the  Passaic  River  in  New  Jersey.  Edison's 
grandfather,  John  Edison,  was  a  Loyalist  in  the 
Revolution  who  found  refuge  in  Nova  Scotia  and 
subsequently  moved  to  Upper  Canada.  His  son, 
Samuel  Edison,  thought  he  saw  a  moral  in  the  old 
man's  exile.  His  father  had  taken  the  King's  side 
and  had  lost  his  home;  Samuel  would  make  no  such 
error.  So,  when  the  Canadian  Rebellion  of  1837 
broke  out,  Samuel  Edison,  aged  thirty-three,  ar- 
rayed himself  on  the  side  of  the  insurgents.  This 
time,  however,  the  insurgents  lost,  and  Samuel  was 
obliged  to  flee  to  the  United  States,  just  as  his 
father  had  fled  to  Canada.  He  finally  settled  at 
Milan,  Ohio,  and  there,  in  1847,  in  a  little  brick 
house,  which  is  still  standing,  Thomas  Alva  Edison 
was  born. 

When  the  boy  was  seven  the  family  moved  to 
Port  Huron,  Michigan.  The  fact  that  he  attended 
school  only  three  months  and  soon  became  self- 
supporting  was  not  due  to  poverty.  His  mother, 
an  educated  woman  of  Scotch  extraction,  taught 
him  at  home  after  the  schoolmaster  reported  that 
he  was  "addled."  His  desire  for  money  to  spend 
on  chemicals  for  a  laboratory  which  he  had  fitted 


THE  FATHERS  OF  ELECTRICITY      205 

up  in  the  cellar  led  to  his  first  venture  in  business. 
"By  a  great  amount  of  persistence,"  he  says,  "I 
got  permission  to  go  on  the  local  train  as  newsboy. 
The  local  train  from  Port  Huron  to  Detroit,  a  dis- 
tance of  sixty-three  miles,  left  at  7  A.M.  and  ar- 
rived again  at  9.30  P.M.  After  being  on  the  train 
for  several  months  I  started  two  stores  in  Port 
Huron  —  one  for  periodicals,  and  the  other  for  vege- 
tables, butter,  and  berries  in  the  season.  They  were 
attended  by  two  boys  who  shared  in  the  profits." 
Moreover,  young  Edison  bought  produce  from  the 
farmers'  wives  along  the  line  which  he  sold  at  a 
profit.  He  had  several  newsboys  working  for  him 
on  other  trains ;  he  spent  hours  in  the  Public  Library 
hi  Detroit;  he  fitted  up  a  laboratory  in  an  unused 
compartment  of  one  of  the  coaches,  and  then 
bought  a  small  printing  press  which  he  installed  in 
the  car  and  began  to  issue  a  newspaper  which  he 
printed  on  the  train.  All  before  he  was  fifteen 
years  old. 

But  one  day  Edison's  career  as  a  traveling  news- 
boy came  to  a  sudden  end.  He  was  at  work  in  his 
moving  laboratory  when  a  lurch  of  the  train  jarred 
a  stick  of  burning  phosphorus  to  the  floor  and  set 
the  car  on  fire.  The  irate  conductor  ejected  him  at 
the  next  station,  giving  him  a  violent  box  on  the 


206  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

ear,  which  permanently  injured  his  hearing,  and 
dumped  his  chemicals  and  printing  apparatus  on 
the  platform. 

Having  lost  his  position,  young  Edison  soon  be- 
gan to  dabble  in  telegraphy,  in  which  he  had  al- 
ready become  interested,  "probably,"  as  he  says, 
"from  visiting  telegraph  offices  with  a  chum  who 
had  tastes  similar  to  mine."  He  and  this  chum 
strung  a  line  between  their  houses  and  learned  the 
rudiments  of  writing  by  wire.  Then  a  station  mas- 
ter on  the  railroad,  whose  child  Edison  had  saved 
from  danger,  took  Edison  under  his  wing  and 
taught  him  the  mysteries  of  railway  telegraphy. 
The  boy  of  sixteen  held  positions  at  small  stations 
near  home  for  a  few  months  and  then  began  a  pe- 
riod of  five  years  of  apparently  purposeless  wander- 
ing as  a  tramp  telegrapher.  Toledo,  Cincinnati, 
Indianapolis,  Memphis,  Louisville,  Detroit,  were 
some  of  the  cities  in  which  he  worked,  studied,  ex- 
perimented, and  played  practical  jokes  on  his  as- 
sociates. He  was  eager  to  learn  something  of  the 
principles  of  electricity  but  found  few  from  whom 
he  could  learn. 

Edison  arrived  in  Boston  in  1868,  practically 
penniless,  and  applied  for  a  position  as  night  opera- 
tor. "The  manager  asked  me  when  I  was  ready 


THE  FATHERS  OF  ELECTRICITY  207 
to  go  to  work.  'Now,'  I  replied."  In  Boston  he 
found  men  who  knew  something  of  electricity,  and, 
as  he  worked  at  night  and  cut  short  his  sleeping 
hours,  he  found  time  for  study.  He  bought  and 
studied  Faraday's  works.  Presently  came  the  first 
of  his  multitudinous  inventions,  an  automatic  vote 
recorder,  for  which  he  received  a  patent  in  1868. 
This  necessitated  a  trip  to  Washington,  which  he 
made  on  borrowed  money,  but  he  was  unable  to 
arouse  any  interest  in  the  device.  "After  the  vote 
recorder,"  he  says,  "I  invented  a  stock  ticker,  and 
started  a  ticker  service  in  Boston;  had  thirty  or 
forty  subscribers  and  operated  from  a  room  over 
the  Gold  Exchange."  This  machine  Edison  at- 
tempted to  sell  in  New  York,  but  he  returned  to 
Boston  without  having  succeeded.  He  then  in- 
vented a  duplex  telegraph  by  which  two  messages 
might  be  sent  simultaneously,  but  at  a  test  the  ma- 
chine failed  because  of  the  stupidity  of  the  assistant. 
Penniless  and  in  debt,  Edison  arrived  again  in  New 
York  in  1869.  But  now  fortune  favored  him.  The 
Gold  Indicator  Company  was  a  concern  furnishing 
to  its  subscribers  by  telegraph  the  Stock  Exchange 
prices  of  gold.  The  company's  instrument  was  out 
of  order.  By  a  lucky  chance  Edison  was  on  the 
spot  to  repair  it,  which  he  did  successfully,  and 


208  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

this  led  to  his  appointment  as  superintendent  at  a 
salary  of  three  hundred  dollars  a  month.  When  a 
change  in  the  ownership  of  the  company  threw  him 
out  of  the  position  he  formed,  with  Franklin  L. 
Pope,  the  partnership  of  Pope,  Edison,  and  Com- 
pany, the  first  firm  of  electrical  engineers  in  the 
United  States. 

Not  long  afterwards  Edison  brought  out  the 
invention  which  set  him  on  the  high  road  to  great 
achievement.  This  was  the  improved  stpck  ticker, 
for  which  the  Gold  and  Stock  Telegraph  Company 
paid  him  forty  thousand  dollars.  It  was  much 
more  than  he  had  expected.  "I  had  made  up  my 
mind,"  he  says,  "that,  taking  into  consideration 
the  time  and  killing  pace  I  was  working  at,  I 
should  be  entitled  to  $5000,  but  could  get  along 
with  $3000."  The  money,  of  course,  was  paid  by 
check.  Edison  had  never  received  a  check  before 
and  he  had  to  be  told  how  to  cash  it. 

Edison  immediately  set  up  a  shop  in  Newark  and 
threw  himself  into  many  and  various  activities. 
He  remade  the  prevailing  system  of  automatic 
telegraphy  and  introduced  it  into  England.  He 
experimented  with  submarine  cables  and  worked 
out  a  system  of  quadruplex  telegraphy  by  which 
.one  wire  was  made  to  do  the  work  of  four.  These 


THE  FATHERS  OF  ELECTRICITY      209 

two  inventions  were  bought  by  Jay  Gould  for  his 
Atlantic  and  Pacific  Telegraph  Company.  Gould 
paid  for  the  quadruplex  system  thirty  thousand 
dollars,  but  for  the  automatic  telegraph  he  paid 
nothing.  Gould  presently  acquired  control  of  the 
Western  Union;  and,  having  thus  removed  com- 
petition from  his  path,  "he  then,"  says  Edison, 
"repudiated  his  contract  with  the  automatic  tele- 
graph people  and  they  never  received  a  cent  for 
their  wires  or  patents,  and  I  lost  three  years  of  very 
hard  labor.  But  I  never  had  any  grudge  against 
him  because  he  was  so  able  in  his  line,  and  as  long 
as  my  part  was  successful  the  money  with  me  was 
a  secondary  consideration.  When  Gould  got  the 
Western  Union  I  knew  no  further  progress  in  te- 
legraphy was  possible,  and  I  went  into  other  lines."  * 
In  fact,  however,  the  need  of  money  forced  Edi- 
son later  on  to  resume  his  work  for  the  Western 
Union  Telegraph  Company,  both  in  telegraphy  and 
telephony.  His  connection  with  the  telephone  is 
told  in  another  volume  of  this  series. 2  He  invented 
a  carbon  transmitter  and  sold  it  to  the  Western 
Union  for  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  payable 
in  seventeen  annual  installments  of  six  thousand 

1  Quoted  in  Dyer  and  Martin,  Edison,  vol.  i,  p.  164. 
«  Hendrick,  The  Age  of  Big  Burinett. 

14 


210  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

dollars.  He  made  a  similar  agreement  for  the  same 
sum  offered  him  for  the  patent  of  the  electro-moto- 
graph.  He  did  not  realize  that  these  installments 
were  only  simple  interest  upon  the  sums  due  him. 
These  agreements  are  typical  of  Edison's  com- 
mercial sense  in  the  early  years  of  his  career  as  an 
inventor.  He  worked  only  upon  inventions  for 
which  there  was  a  possible  commercial  demand  and 
sold  them  for  a  trifle  to  get  the  money  to  meet  the 
pay  rolls  of  his  different  shops.  Later  the  inventor 
learned  wisdom  and  associated  with  himself  keen 
business  men  to  their  common  profit. 

Edison  set  up  his  laboratories  and  factories  at 
Menlo  Park,  New  Jersey,  in  1876,  and  it  was  there 
that  he  invented  the  phonograph,  for  which  he  re- 
ceived the  first  patent  in  1878.  It  was  there,  too, 
that  he  began  that  wonderful  series  of  experiments 
which  gave  to  the  world  the  incandescent  lamp. 
He  had  noticed  the  growing  importance  of  open  arc 
lighting,  but  was  convinced  that  his  mission  was 
to  produce  an  electric  lamp  for  use  within  doors. 
Forsaking  for  the  moment  his  newborn  phonograph, 
Edison  applied  himself  in  earnest  to  the  problem  of 
the  lamp.  His  first  search  was  for  a  durable  fila- 
ment which  would  burn  in  a  vacuum.  A  series  of 
experiments  with  platinum  wire  and  with  various 


THE  FATHERS  OF  ELECTRICITY      211 

refractory  metals  led  to  no  satisfactory  results. 
Many  other  substances  were  tried,  even  human 
hair.  Edison  concluded  that  carbon  of  some  sort 
was  the  solution  rather  than  a  metal.  Almost  coin- 
cidently,  Swan,  an  Englishman,  who  had  also  been 
wrestling  with  this  problem,  came  to  the  same  con- 
clusion. Finally,  one  day  in  October,  1879,  after 
fourteen  months  of  hard  work  and  the  expenditure 
of  forty  thousand  dollars,  a  carbonized  cotton 
thread  sealed  in  one  of  Edison's  globes  lasted  forty 
hours.  "If  it  will  burn  forty  hours  now,"  said 
Edison,  "I  know  I  can  make  it  burn  a  hundred." 
And  so  he  did.  A  better  filament  was  needed. 
Edison  found  it  in  carbonized  strips  of  bamboo. 

Edison  developed  his  own  type  of  dynamo,  the 
largest  ever  made  up  to  that  time,  and,  along  with 
the  Edison  incandescent  lamps,  it  was  one  of  the 
wonders  of  the  Paris  Electrical  Exposition  of  1881. 
The  installation  in  Europe  and  America  of  plants 
for  service  followed.  Edison's  first  great  central 
station,  supplying  power  for  three  thousand  lamps, 
was  erected  at  Holborn  Viaduct,  London,  in  1882, 
and  in  September  of  that  year  the  Pearl  Street  Sta- 
tion in  New  York  City,  the  first  central  station  in 
America,  was  put  into  operation. 

The  incandescent  lamp  and  the  central  power 


212  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

station,  considered  together,  may  be  regarded  as 
one  of  the  most  fruitful  conceptions  in  the  history 
of  applied  electricity.  It  comprised  a  complete 
generating,  distributing,  and  utilizing  system,  from 
the  dynamo  to  the  very  lamp  at  the  fixture,  ready 
for  use.  It  even  included  a  meter  to  determine  the 
current  actually  consumed.  The  success  of  the  sys- 
tem was  complete,  and  as  fast  as  lamps  and  genera- 
tors could  be  produced  they  were  installed  to  give  a 
service  at  once  recognized  as  superior  to  any  other 
form  of  lighting.  By  1885  the  Edison  lighting  sys- 
tem was  commercially  developed  in  all  its  essen- 
tials, though  still  subject  to  many  improvements 
and  capable  of  great  enlargement,  and  soon  Edison 
sold  out  his  interests  in  it  and  turned  his  great  mind 
to  other  inventions. 

The  inventive  ingenuity  of  others  brought  in 
time  better  and  more  economical  incandescent 
lamps.  From  the  filaments  of  bamboo  fiber  the 
next  step  was  to  filaments  of  cellulose  in  the  form 
of  cotton,  duly  prepared  and  carbonized.  Later 
(1905)  came  the  metalized  carbon  filament  and 
finally  the  employment  of  tantalum  or  tungsten. 
The  tungsten  lamps  first  made  were  very  delicate, 
and  it  was  not  until  W.  D.  Coolidge,  in  the  research 
laboratories  of  the  General  Electric  Company  at 


THE  FATHERS  OF  ELECTRICITY     213 

Schenectady,  invented  a  process  for  producing 
ductile  tungsten  that  they  became  available  for 
general  use. 

The  dynamo  and  the  central  power  station 
brought  the  electric  motor  into  action.  The  dyna- 
mo and  the  motor  do  precisely  opposite  things. 
The  dynamo  converts  mechanical  energy  into  elec- 
tric energy.  The  motor  transforms  electric  energy 
into  mechanical  energy.  But  the  two  work  in 
partnership  and  without  the  dynamo  to  manu- 
facture the  power  the  motor  could  not  thrive. 
Moreover,  the  central  station  was  needed  to  dis- 
tribute the  power  for  transportation  as  well  as 
for  lighting. 

The  first  motors  to  use  Edison  station  current 
were  designed  by  Frank  J.  Sprague,  a  graduate  of 
the  Naval  Academy,  who  had  worked  with  Edison, 
as  have  many  of  the  foremost  electrical  engineers 
of  America  and  Europe.  These  small  motors  pos- 
sessed several  advantages  over  the  big  steam  en- 
gine. They  ran  smoothly  and  noiselessly  on  ac- 
count of  the  absence  of  reciprocating  parts.  They 
consumed  current  only  when  in  use.  They  could 
be  installed  and  connected  with  a  minimum  of 
trouble  and  expense.  They  emitted  neither  smell 
nor  smoke. 


214  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

Edison  built  an  experimental  electric  railway 
line  at  Menlo  Park  in  1880  and  proved  its  practic- 
ability. Meanwhile,  however,  as  he  worked  on  his 
motors  and  dynamos,  he  was  anticipated  by  others 
in  some  of  his  inventions.  It  would  not  be  fair  to 
say  that  Edison  and  Sprague  alone  developed  the 
electric  railway,  for  there  were  several  others  who 
made  important  contributions.  Stephen  D.  Field 
of  Stockbridge,  Massachusetts,  had  a  patent  which 
the  Edison  interests  found  it  necessary  to  acquire; 
C.  J.  Van  Depoele  and  Leo  Daft  made  important 
contributions  to  the  trolley  system.  In  Cleveland 
in  1884  an  electric  railway  on  a  small  scale  was 
opened  to  the  public.  But  Sprague's  first  electric 
railway,  built  at  Richmond,  Virginia,  in  1887,  as  a 
complete  system,  is  generally  hailed  as  the  true 
pioneer  of  electric  transportation  in  the  United 
States.  Thereafter  the  electric  railway  spread 
quickly  over  the  land,  obliterating  the  old  horse- 
cars  and  greatly  enlarging  the  circumference  of  the 
city.  Moreover,  on  the  steam  roads,  at  all  the 
great  terminals,  and  wherever  there  were  tunnels 
to  be  passed  through,  the  old  giant  steam  engine  in 
time  yielded  place  to  the  electric  motor. 

The  application  of  the  electric  motor  to  the  "  ver- 
tical railway,"  or  elevator,  made  possible  the  steel 


THE  FATHERS  OF  ELECTRICITY      215 

skyscraper.  The  elevator,  of  course,  is  an  old  de- 
vice. It  was  improved  and  developed  in  America 
by  Elisha  Graves  Otis,  an  inventor  who  lived  and 
died  before  the  Civil  War  and  whose  sons  afterward 
erected  a  great  business  on  foundations  laid  by  him. 
The  first  Otis  elevators  were  moved  by  steam  or 
hydraulic  power.  They  were  slow,  noisy,  and  diffi- 
cult of  control.  After  the  electric  motor  came 
in,  the  elevator  soon  changed  its  character  and 
adapted  itself  to  the  imperative  demands  of  the 
towering,  skeleton-framed  buildings  which  were 
rising  in  every  city. 

Edison,  already  famous  as  "the  Wizard  of  Menlo 
Park,"  established  his  factories  and  laboratories  at 
West  Orange,  New  Jersey,  in  1887,  whence  he  has 
since  sent  forth  a  constant  stream  of  inventions, 
some  new  and  startling,  others  improvements  on 
old  devices.  The  achievements  of  several  other  in- 
ventors in  the  electrical  field  have  been  only  less 
noteworthy  than  his.  The  new  profession  of  elec- 
trical engineering  called  to  its  service  great  num- 
bers of  able  men.  Manufacturers  of  electrical  ma- 
chinery established  research  departments  and  em- 
ployed inventors.  The  times  had  indeed  changed 
since  the  day  when  Morse,  as  a  student  at  Yale 
College,  chose  art  instead  of  electricity  as  his 


216  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

calling,  because  electricity  afforded  him  no  means 
of  livelihood. 

From  Edison's  plant  in  1903  came  a  new  type  of 
the  storage  battery,  which  he  afterwards  improved. 
The  storage  battery,  as  every  one  knows,  is  used  in 
the  propulsion  of  electric  vehicles  and  boats,  in  the 
operation  of  block-signals,  in  the  lighting  of  trains, 
and  in  the  ignition  and  starting  of  gasoline  en- 
gines. As  an  adjunct  of  the  gas-driven  automobile, 
it  renders  the  starting  of  the  engine  independent 
of  muscle  and  so  makes  possible  the  general  use  of 
the  automobile  by  women  as  well  as  men. 

The  dynamo  brought  into  service  not  only  light 
and  power  but  heat;  and  the  electric  furnace  in 
turn  gave  rise  to  several  great  metallurgical  and 
chemical  industries.  Elihu  Thomson's  process  of 
welding  by  means  of  the  arc  furnace  found  wide 
and  varied  applications.  The  commercial  produc- 
tion of  aluminum  is  due  to  the  electric  furnace  and 
dates  from  1886.  It  was  in  that  year  that  H.  Y. 
Castner  of  New  York  and  C.  M.  Hall  of  Pittsburgh 
both  invented  the  methods  of  manufacture  which 
gave  to  the  world  the  new  metal,  malleable  and  duc- 
tile, exceedingly  light,  and  capable  of  a  thousand 
uses.  Carborundum  is  another  product  of  the 
electric  furnace.  It  was  the  invention  of  Edward 


THE  FATHERS  OF  ELECTRICITY      217 

B.  Acheson,  a  graduate  of  the  Edison  laboratories. 
Acheson,  in  1891,  was  trying  to  make  artificial  dia- 
monds and  produced  instead  the  more  useful  car- 
borundum, as  well  as  the  Acheson  graphite,  which 
at  once  found  its  place  in  industry.  Another  valu- 
able product  of  the  electric  furnace  was  the  calcium 
carbide  first  produced  in  1892  by  Thomas  L.  Wil- 
son of  Spray,  North  Carolina.  This  calcium  car- 
bide is  the  basis  of  acetylene  gas,  a  powerful  illu- 
minant,  and  it  is  widely  used  in  metallurgy,  for 
welding  and  other  purposes. 

At  the  same  time  with  these  developments  the 
value  of  the  alternating  current  came  to  be  recog- 
nized. The  transformer,  an  instrument  developed 
on  foundations  laid  by  Henry  and  Faraday,  made 
it  possible  to  transmit  electrical  energy  over  great 
distances  with  little  loss  of  power.  Alternating 
currents  were  transformed  by  means  of  this  instru- 
ment at  the  source,  and  were  again  converted  at 
the  point  of  use  to  a  lower  and  convenient  poten- 
tial for  local  distribution  and  consumption.  The 
first  extensive  use  of  the  alternating  current  was  in 
arc  lighting,  where  the  higher  potentials  could  be  em- 
ployed on  series  lamps.  Perhaps  the  chief  American 
inventor  in  the  domain  of  the  alternating  current 
is  Elihu  Thomson,  who  began  his  useful  career  as 


218  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

Professor  of  Chemistry  and  Mechanics  in  the  Cen- 
tral High  School  of  Philadelphia.  Another  great 
protagonist  of  the  alternating  current  was  George 
Westinghouse,  who  was  quite  as  much  an  improver 
and  inventor  as  a  manufacturer  of  machinery. 
Two  other  inventors,  at  least,  should  not  be  forgot- 
ten in  this  connection :  Nicola  Tesla  and  Charles  S. 
Bradley.  Both  of  them  had  worked  for  Edison. 

The  turbine  (from  the  Latin  turbo,  .meaning  a 
whirlwind)  is  the  name  of  the  motor  which  drives 
the  great  dynamos  for  the  generation  of  electric 
energy.  It  may  be  either  a  steam  turbine  or  a 
water  turbine.  The  steam  turbine  of  Curtis  or 
Parsons  is  today  the  prevailing  engine.  But  the 
development  of  hydro-electric  power  has  already 
gone  far.  It  is  estimated  that  the  electric  energy 
produced  in  the  United  States  by  the  utilization  of 
water  powers  every  year  equals  the  power  product 
of  forty  million  tons  of  coal,  or  about  one-tenth  of 
the  coal  which  is  consumed  in  the  production  of 
steam.  Yet  hydro-electricity  is  said  to  be  only  in 
its  beginnings,  for  not  more  than  a  tenth  of  the 
readily  available  water  power  of  the  country  is 
actually  in  use. 

The  first  commercial  hydro-station  for  the  trans- 
mission of  power  in  America  was  established  in 


THE  FATHERS  OF  ELECTRICITY      219 

1891  at  Telluride,  Colorado.  It  was  practically 
duplicated  in  the  following  year  at  Brodie,  Colo- 
rado. The  motors  and  generators  for  these  stations 
came  from  the  Westinghouse  plant  in  Pittsburgh, 
and  Westinghouse  also  supplied  the  turbo-genera- 
tors which  inaugurated,  in  1895,  the  delivery  of 
power  from  Niagara  Falls. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   CONQUEST   OF   THE   AIR 

THE  most  popular  man  in  Europe  in  the  year  1783 
was  still  the  United  States  Minister  to  France. 
The  figure  of  plain  Benjamin  Franklin,  his  broad 
head,  with  the  calm,  shrewd  eyes  peering  through 
the  bifocals  of  his  own  invention,  invested  with  a 
halo  of  great  learning  and  fame,  entirely  captivated 
the  people's  imagination. 

As  one  of  the  American  Commissioners  busy 
with  the  extraordinary  problems  of  the  Peace, 
Franklin  might  have  been  supposed  too  occupied 
for  excursions  into  the  paths  of  science  and  phi- 
losophy. But  the  spaciousness  and  orderly  furnish- 
ing of  his  mind  provided  that  no  pursuit  of  knowl- 
edge should  be  a  digression  for  him.  So  we  find 
him,  naturally,  leaving  his  desk  on  several  days  of 
that  summer  and  autumn  and  posting  off  to  watch 
the  trials  of  a  new  invention;  nothing  less  indeed 
than  a  ship  to  ride  the  air.  He  found  time  also  to 

220 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  AIR         221 

describe  the  new  invention  in  letters  to  his  friends 
in  different  parts  of  the  world. 

On  the  21st  of  November  Franklin  set  out  for  the 
gardens  of  the  Bang's  hunting  lodge  in  the  Bois  de 
Boulogne,  on  the  outskirts  of  Paris,  with  a  quick- 
ened interest,  a  thrill  of  excitement,  which  made 
him  yearn  to  be  young  again  with  another  long 
life  to  live  that  he  might  see  what  should  be  after 
him  on  the  earth.  What  bold  things  men  would 
attempt!  Today  two  daring  Frenchmen,  Pilatre 
de  Rozier  of  the  Royal  Academy  and  his  friend  the 
Marquis  d'Arlandes,  would  ascend  in  a  balloon 
freed  from  the  earth  —  the  first  men  in  history 
to  adventure  thus  upon  the  wind.  The  crowds 
gathered  to  witness  the  event  opened  a  lane  for 
Franklin  to  pass  through. 

At  six  minutes  to  two  the  aeronauts  entered  the 
car  of  their  balloon;  and,  at  a  height  of  two  hundred 
and  seventy  feet,  doffed  their  hats  and  saluted  the 
applauding  spectators.  Then  the  wind  carried 
them  away  toward  Paris.  Over  Passy,  about  half 
a  mile  from  the  starting  point,  the  balloon  began 
to  descend,  and  the  River  Seine  seemed  rising  to 
engulf  them;  but  when  they  fed  the  fire  under  their 
sack  of  hot  air  with  chopped  straw  they  rose  to  the 
elevation  of  five  hundred  feet.  Safe  across  the 


222  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

river  they  dampened  the  fire  with  a  sponge  and 
made  a  gentle  descent  beyond  the  old  ramparts 
of  Paris. 

At  five  o'clock  that  afternoon,  at  the  King's 
Chateau  in  the  Bois  de  Boulogne,  the  members  of 
the  Royal  Academy  signed  a  memorial  of  the  event. 
One  of  the  spectators  accosted  Franklin. 

"What  does  Dr.  Franklin  conceive  to  be  the  use 
of  this  new  invention?" 

"What  is  the  use  of  a  new-born  child?"  was 
the  retort. 

A  new-born  child,  a  new-born  republic,  a  new 
invention:  alike  dim  beginnings  of  development 
which  none  could  foretell.  The  year  that  saw  the 
world  acknowledge  a  new  nation,  freed  of  its  an- 
cient political  bonds,  saw  also  the  first  successful 
attempt  to  break  the  supposed  bonds  that  held  men 
down  to  the  ground.  Though  the  invention  of  the 
balloon  was  only  five  months  old,  there  were  already 
two  types  on  exhibition:  the  original  Montgolfier, 
or  fire-balloon,  inflated  with  hot  air,  and  a  modifi- 
cation by  Charles,  inflated  with  hydrogen  gas. 
The  mass  of  the  French  people  did  not  regard  these 
balloons  with  Franklin's  serenity.  Some  weeks 
earlier  the  danger  of  attack  had  necessitated  a  bal- 
loon's removal  from  the  place  of  its  first  moorings 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  AIR         223 

to  the  Champ  de  Mars  at  dead  of  night.  Preceded 
by  flaming  torches,  with  soldiers  marching  on 
either  side  and  guards  in  front  and  rear,  the  great 
ball  was  borne  through  the  darkened  streets.  The 
midnight  cabby  along  the  route  stopped  his  nag,  or 
tumbled  from  sleep  on  his  box,  to  kneel  on  the 
pavement  and  cross  himself  against  the  evil  that 
might  be  in  that  strange  monster.  The  fear  of  the 
people  was  so  great  that  the  Government  saw  fit 
to  issue  a  proclamation,  explaining  the  invention. 
Any  one  seeing  such  a  globe,  like  the  moon  in  an 
eclipse,  so  read  the  proclamation,  should  be  aware 
that  it  is  only  a  bag  made  of  taffeta  or  light  canvas 
covered  with  paper  and  "cannot  possibly  cause  any 
harm  and  which  will  some  day  prove  serviceable  to 
the  wants  of  society." 

Franklin  wrote  a  description  of  the  Montgolfier 
balloon  to  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  President  of  the  Royal 
Society  of  London: 

Its  bottom  was  open  and  in  the  middle  of  the  open- 
ing was  fixed  a  kind  of  basket  grate,  in  which  faggots 
and  sheaves  of  straw  were  burnt.  The  air,  rarefied  in 
passing  through  this  flame,  rose  in  the  balloon,  swelled 
out  its  sides,  and  filled  it.  The  persons,  who  were 
placed  in  the  gallery  made  of  wicker  and  attached  to 
the  outside  near  the  bottom,  had  each  of  them  a  port 
through  which  they  could  pass  sheaves  of  straw  into 


224  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

the  grate  to  keep  up  the  flame  and  thereby  keep  the 
balloon  full.  .  .  .  One  of  these  courageous  philoso- 
phers, the  Marquis  d'Arlandes,  did  me  the  honor  to 
call  upon  me  in  the  evening  after  the  experiment,  with 
Mr.  Montgolfier,  the  very  ingenious  inventor.  I  was 
happy  to  see  him  safe.  He  informed  me  that  they  lit 
gently,  without  the  least  shock,  and  the  balloon  was 
very  little  damaged. 

Franklin  writes  that  the  competition  between 
Montgolfier  and  Charles  has  already  resulted  in 
progress  in  the  construction  and  management  of 
the  balloon.  He  sees  it  as  a  discovery  of  great  im- 
portance, one  that  "may  possibly  give  a  new  turn 
to  human  affairs.  Convincing  sovereigns  of  the 
folly  of  war  may  perhaps  be  one  effect  of  it,  since  it 
will  be  impracticable  for  the  most  potent  of  them  to 
guard  his  dominions."  The  prophecy  may  yet  be 
fulfilled.  Franklin  remarks  that  a  short  while  ago 
the  idea  of  "witches  riding  through  the  air  upon  a 
broomstick  and  that  of  philosophers  upon  a  bag 
of  smoke  would  have  appeared  equally  impossible 
and  ridiculous."  Yet  in  the  space  of  a  few  months 
he  has  seen  the  philosopher  on  his  smoke  bag,  if  not 
the  witch  on  her  broom.  He  wishes  that  one  of 
these  very  ingenious  inventors  would  immediately 
devise  means  of  direction  for  the  balloon,  a  rudder 
to  steer  it;  because  the  malady  from  which  he  is 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  AIR         225 

suffering  is  always  increased  by  a  jolting  drive  in  a 
fourwheeler  and  he  would  gladly  avail  himself  of  an 
easier  way  of  locomotion. 

The  vision  of  man  on  the  wing  did  not,  of  course, 
begin  with  the  invention  of  the  balloon.  Perhaps 
the  dream  of  flying  man  came  first  to  some  primi- 
tive poet  of  the  Stone  Age,  as  he  watched,  fearfully, 
the  gyrations  of  the  winged  creatures  of  the  air; 
even  as  in  a  later  age  it  came  to  Langley  and 
Maxim,  who  studied  the  wing  motions  of  birds  and 
insects,  not  in  fear  but  in  the  light  and  confidence 
of  advancing  science. 

Crudely  outlined  by  some  ancient  Egyptian 
sculptor,  a  winged  human  figure  broods  upon  the 
tomb  of  Rameses  III.  In  the  Hebrew  parable  of 
Genesis  winged  cherubim  guarded  the  gates  of 
Paradise  against  the  man  and  woman  who  had 
stifled  aspiration  with  sin.  Fairies,  witches,  and 
magicians  ride  the  wind  in  the  legends  and  folklore 
of  all  peoples.  The  Greeks  had  gods  and  goddesses 
many;  and  one  of  these  Greek  art  represents  as 
moving  earthward  on  great  spreading  pinions. 
Victory  came  by  the  air.  When  Demetrius,  King 
of  Macedonia,  set  up  the  Winged  Victory  of  Samo- 
thrace  to  commemorate  the  naval  triumph  of  the 
is 


226  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

Greeks  over  the  ships  of  Egypt,  Greek  art  poeti- 
cally foreshadowed  the  relation  of  the  air  service 
to  the  fleet  in  our  own  day. 

Man  has  always  dreamed  of  flight;  but  when  did 
men  first  actually  fly?  We  smile  at  the  story  of 
Daedalus,  the  Greek  architect,  and  his  son,  Icarus, 
who  made  themselves  wings  and  flew  from  the 
realm  of  their  foes;  and  the  tale  of  Simon,  the 
magician,  who  pestered  the  early  Christian  Church 
by  exhibitions  of  flight  into  the  air  amid  smoke  and 
flame  in  mockery  of  the  ascension.  But  do  the 
many  tales  of  sorcerers  in  the  Middle  Ages,  who 
rose  from  the  ground  with  their  cloaks  apparently 
filled  with  wind,  to  awe  the  rabble,  suggest  that 
they  had  deduced  the  principle  of  the  aerostat  from 
watching  the  action  of  smoke  as  did  the  Mont- 
golfiers  hundreds  of  years  later?  At  all  events  one 
of  these  alleged  exhibitions  about  the  year  800  in- 
spired the  good  Bishop  Agobard  of  Lyons  to  write 
a  book  against  superstition,  in  which  he  proved  con- 
clusively that  it  was  impossible  for  human  beings 
to  rise  through  the  air.  Later,  Roger  Bacon  and 
Leonardo  da  Vinci,  each  in  his  turn  ruminated  in 
manuscript  upon  the  subject  of  flight.  Bacon,  the 
scientist,  put  forward  a  theory  of  thin  copper  globes 
filled  with  liquid  fire,  which  would  soar.  Leonardo, 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  AIR  227 
artist,  studied  the  wings  of  birds.  The  Jesuit 
Francisco  Lana,  in  1670,  working  on  Bacon's  the- 
ory sketched  an  airship  made  of  four  copper  balls 
with  a  skiff  attached;  this  machine  was  to  soar 
by  means  of  the  lighter-than-air  globes  and  to  be 
navigated  aloft  by  oars  and  sails. 

But  while  philosophers  in  their  libraries  were  de- 
signing airships  on  paper  and  propounding  their 
theories,  venturesome  men,  "crawling,  but  pes- 
tered with  the  thought  of  wings,"  were  making  pin- 
ions of  various  fabrics  and  trying  them  upon  the 
wind.  Four  years  after  Lana  suggested  his  airship 
with  balls  and  oars,  Besnier,  a  French  locksmith, 
made  a  flying  machine  of  four  collapsible  planes 
like  book  covers  suspended  on  rods.  With  a  rod 
over  each  shoulder,  and  moving  the  two  front 
planes  with  his  arms  and  the  two  back  ones  by  his 
feet,  Besnier  gave  exhibitions  of  gliding  from  a 
height  to  the  earth.  But  his  machine  could  not 
soar.  What  may  be  called  the  first  patent  on  a  fly- 
ing machine  was  recorded  in  1709  when  Bartholo- 
meo  de  Gusmao,  a  friar,  appeared  before  the  King 
of  Portugal  to  announce  that  he  had  invented  a  fly- 
ing machine  and  to  request  an  order  prohibiting 
other  men  from  making  anything  of  the  sort.  The 
King  decreed  pain  of  death  to  all  inf ringers;  and  to 


228  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

assist  the  enterprising  monk  in  improving  his  ma- 
chine, he  appointed  him  first  professor  of  mathe- 
matics in  the  University  of  Coimbra  with  a  fat 
stipend.  Then  the  Inquisition  stepped  in.  The  in- 
ventor's suave  reply,  to  the  effect  that  to  show  men 
how  to  soar  to  Heaven  was  an  essentially  religious 
act,  availed  him  nothing.  He  was  pronounced  a 
sorcerer,  his  machine  was  destroyed,  and  he  was 
imprisoned  till  his  death.  Many  other  men  fash- 
ioned unto  themselves  wings;  but,  though  some  of 
them  might  glide  earthward,  none  could  rise  upon 
the  wind. 

While  the  principle  by  which  the  balloon,  father 
of  the  dirigible,  soars  and  floats  could  be  deduced 
by  men  of  natural  powers  of  observation  and  little 
science  from  the  action  of  clouds  and  smoke,  the  air- 
plane, the  Winged  Victory  of  our  day,  waited  upon 
two  things — the  scientific  analysis  of  the  anatomy 
of  bird  wings  and  the  internal  combustion  engine. 

These  two  things  necessary  to  convert  man  into 
a  rival  of  the  albatross  did  not  come  at  once  and  to- 
gether. Not  the  dream  of  flying  but  the  need  for 
quantity  and  speed  in  production  to  take  care 
of  the  wants  of  a  modern  civilization  compelled 
the  invention  of  the  internal  combustion  engine. 
Before  it  appeared  in  the  realm  of  mechanics, 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  AIR         229 

experimenters  were  applying  in  the  construction  of 
flying  models  the  knowledge  supplied  by  Cayley  in 
1796,  who  made  an  instrument  of  whalebone,  corks, 
and  feathers,  which  by  the  action  of  two  screws  of 
quill  feathers,  rotating  in  opposite  directions,  would 
rise  to  the  ceiling;  and  the  full  revelation  of  the 
structure  and  action  of  bird  wings  set  forth  by 
Pettigrew  in  1867. 

"The  wing,  both  when  at  rest  and  when  in  mo- 
tion," Pettigrew  declared,  "may  not  inaptly  be 
compared  to  the  blade  of  an  ordinary  screw  pro- 
peller as  employed  in  navigation.  Thus  the  gen- 
eral outline  of  the  wing  corresponds  closely  with  the 
outline  of  the  propeller,  and  the  track  described  by 
the  wing  in  space  is  twisted  upon  itself  propeller 
fashion."  Numerous  attempts  to  apply  the  newly 
discovered  principles  to  artificial  birds  failed,  yet 
came  so  close  to  success  that  they  fed  instead  of 
killing  the  hope  that  a  solution  of  the  problem 
would  one  day  ere  long  be  reached. 

"Nature  has  solved  it,  and  why  not  man?" 
From  his  boyhood  days  Samuel  Pierpont  Lang- 
ley,  so  he  tells  us,  had  asked  himself  that  question, 
which  he  was  later  to  answer.    Langley,  born  in 
Roxbury,  Massachusetts,  in  1834,  was  another  link 


230  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

in  the  chain  of  distinguished  inventors  who  first 
saw  the  light  of  day  in  Puritan  New  England. 
And,  like  many  of  those  other  inventors,  he  num- 
bered among  his  ancestors  for  generations  two 
types  of  men  —  on  the  one  hand,  a  line  of  skilled 
artisans  and  mechanics;  on  the  other,  the  most  in- 
tellectual men  of  their  time  such  as  clergymen  and 
schoolmasters,  one  of  them  being  Increase  Mather. 
We  see  in  Langley,  as  in  some  of  his  brother  New 
England  inventors,  the  later  flowering  of  the  Puri- 
tan ideal  stripped  of  its  husk  of  superstition  and 
harshness  —  a  high  sense  of  duty  and  of  integrity, 
an  intense  conviction  that  the  reason  for  a  man's 
life  here  is  that  he  may  give  service,  a  reserved  de- 
portment which  did  not  mask  from  discerning  eyes 
the  man's  gentle  qualities  of  heart  and  his  keen 
love  of  beauty  in  art  and  Nature. 

Langley  first  chose  as  his  profession  civil  engi- 
neering and  architecture  and  the  years  between 
1857  and  1864  were  chiefly  spent  in  prosecuting 
these  callings  in  St.  Louis  and  Chicago.  Then  he 
abandoned  them;  for  the  bent  of  his  mind  was 
definitely  towards  scientific  inquiry.  In  1867  he 
was  appointed  director  of  the  Allegheny  Obser- 
vatory at  Pittsburgh.  Here  he  remained  until 
1887,  when,  having  made  for  himself  a  world-wide 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  AIR         231 

reputation  as  an  astronomer,  he  became  Secretary 
of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  at  Washington. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  he  began  his  ex- 
periments in  "aerodynamics."  But  the  prob- 
lem of  flight  had  long  been  a  subject  of  interested 
speculation  with  him.  Ten  years  later  he  wrote: 

Nature  has  made  her  flying-machine  in  the  bird, 
which  is  nearly  a  thousand  times  as  heavy  as  the  air 
its  bulk  displaces,  and  only  those  who  have  tried  to 
rival  it  know  how  inimitable  her  work  is,  for  the  "  way 
of  a  bird  in  the  air"  remains  as  wonderful  to  us  as  it  was 
to  Solomon,  and  the  sight  of  the  bird  has  constantly 
held  this  wonder  before  men's  minds,  and  kept  the 
flame  of  hope  from  utter  extinction,  in  spite  of  long  dis- 
appointment. I  well  remember  how,  as  a  child,  when 
lying  in  a  New  England  pasture,  I  watched  a  hawk 
soaring  far  up  in  the  blue,  and  sailing  for  a  long  time 
without  any  motion  of  its  wings,  as  though  it  needed 
no  work  to  sustain  it,  but  was  kept  up  there  by  some 
miracle.  But,  however  sustained,  I  saw  it  sweep  in  a 
few  seconds  of  its  leisurely  flight,  over  a  distance  that 
to  me  was  encumbered  with  every  sort  of  obstacle, 
which  did  not  exist  for  it.  ...  How  wonderfully 
easy,  too,  was  its  flight !  There  was  not  a  flutter  of  its 
pinions  as  it  swept  over  the  field,  in  a  motion  which 
seemed  as  effortless  as  that  of  its  shadow.  After  many 
years  and  in  mature  life,  I  was  brought  to  think  of  these 
things  again,  and  to  ask  myself  whether  the  problem 
of  artificial  flight  was  as  hopeless  and  as  absurd  as  it 
was  then  thought  to  be. 


232  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

In  three  or  four  years  Langley  made  nearly  forty 
models.  "The  primary  difficulty  lay  in  making 
the  model  light  enough  and  sufficiently  strong  to 
support  its  power,"  he  says.  "This  difficulty 
continued  to  be  fundamental  through  every  later 
form;  but,  beside  this,  the  adjustment  of  the  center 
of  gravity  to  the  center  of  pressure  of  the  wings, 
the  disposition  of  the  wings  themselves,  the  size 
of  the  propellers,  the  inclination  and  number  of 
the  blades,  and  a  great  number  of  other  details, 
presented  themselves  for  examination." 

By  1891  Langley  had  a  model  light  enough  to 
fly,  but  proper  balancing  had  not  been  attained. 
He  set  himself  anew  to  find  the  practical  condi- 
tions of  equilibrium  and  of  horizontal  flight.  His 
experiments  convinced  him  that  "mechanical  sus- 
tenation  of  heavy  bodies  in  the  air,  combined  with 
very  great  speeds,  is  not  only  possible,  but  within 
the  reach  of  mechanical  means  we  actually  possess." 

After  many  experiments  with  new  models  Lang- 
ley  at  length  fashioned  a  steam-driven  machine 
which  would  fly  horizontally.  It  weighed  about 
thirty  pounds;  it  was  some  sixteen  feet  in  length, 
with  two  sets  of  wings,  the  pair  in  front  measuring 
forty  feet  from  tip  to  tip.  On  May  6,  1896,  this 
model  was  launched  over  the  Potomac  River.  It 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  AIR  233 
flew  half  a  mile  in  a  minute  and  a  half.  When  its 
fuel  and  water  gave  out,  it  descended  gently  to  the 
river's  surface.  In  November  Langley  launched 
another  model  which  flew  for  three-quarters  of  a 
mile  at  a  speed  of  thirty  miles  an  hour.  These  tests 
demonstrated  the  practicability  of  artificial  flight. 

The  Spanish-American  War  found  the  military 
observation  balloon  doing  the  limited  work  which 
it  had  done  ever  since  the  days  of  Franklin.  Presi- 
dent McKinley  was  keenly  interested  in  Langley's 
design  to  build  a  power-driven  flying  machine 
which  would  have  innumerable  advantages  over 
the  balloon.  The  Government  provided  the  funds 
and  Langley  took  up  the  problem  of  a  flying  ma- 
chine large  enough  to  carry  a  man.  His  initial  dif- 
ficulty was  the  engine.  It  was  plain  at  once  that 
new  principles  of  engine  construction  must  be 
adopted  before  a  motor  could  be  designed  of  high 
power  yet  light  enough  to  be  borne  in  the  slender 
body  of  an  airplane.  The  internal  combustion 
engine  had  now  come  into  use.  Langley  went  to 
Europe  in  1900,  seeking  his  motor,  only  to  be  told 
that  what  he  sought  was  impossible. 

His  assistant,  Charles  M.  Manly,  meanwhile 
found  a  builder  of  engines  in  America  who  was 
willing  to  make  the  attempt.  But,  after  two  years 


234  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

of  waiting  for  it,  the  engine  proved  a  failure.  Man- 
ly then  had  the  several  parts  of  it,  which  he 
deemed  hopeful,  transported  to  Washington,  and 
there  at  the  Smithsonian  Institution  he  labored 
and  experimented  until  he  evolved  a  'light  and 
powerful  gasoline  motor.  In  October,  1903,  the 
test  was  made,  with  Manly  aboard  of  the  machine. 
The  failure  which  resulted  was  due  solely  to  the 
clumsy  launching  apparatus.  The  airplane  was 
damaged  as  it  rushed  forward  before  beginning  to 
soar;  and,  as  it  rose,  it  turned  over  and  plunged 
into  the  river.  The  loyal  and  enthusiastic  Manly, 
who  was  fortunately  a  good  diver  and  swimmer, 
hastily  dried  himself  and  gave  out  a  reassuring 
statement  to  the  representatives  of  the  press  and 
to  the  officers  of  the  Board  of  Ordnance  gathered 
to  witness  the  flight. 

A  second  failure  in  December  convinced  specta- 
tors that  man  was  never  intended  to  fly.  The  news- 
papers let  loose  such  a  storm  of  ridicule  upon  Lang- 
ley  and  his  machine,  with  charges  as  to  the  waste 
of  public  funds,  that  the  Government  refused  to 
assist  him  further.  Langley,  at  that  time  sixty- 
nine  years  of  age,  took  this  defeat  so  keenly  to  heart 
that  it  hastened  his  death,  which  occurred  three 
years  later.  "Failure  in  the  aerodrome  itself," 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  AIR         235 

he  wrote,  "or  its  engines  there  has  been  none;  and 
it  is  believed  that  it  is  at  the  moment  of  success, 
and  when  the  engineering  problems  have  been 
solved,  that  a  lack  of  means  has  prevented  a  con- 
tinuance of  the  work." 

It  was  truly  "at  the  moment  of  success'*  that 
Langley's  work  was  stopped.  On  December  17, 
1903,  the  Wright  brothers  made  the  first  successful 
experiment  in  which  a  machine  carrying  a  man 
rose  by  its  own  power,  flew  naturally  and  at  even 
speed,  and  descended  without  damage.  These 
brothers,  Wilbur  and  Orville,  who  at  last  opened 
the  long  besieged  lanes  of  the  air,  were  born  in 
Dayton,  Ohio.  Their  father,  a  clergyman  and 
later  a  bishop,  spent  his  leisure  in  scientific  reading 
and  in  the  invention  of  a  typewriter  which,  how- 
ever, he  never  perfected.  He  inspired  an  interest 
in  scientific  principles  in  his  boys'  minds  by  giving 
them  toys  which  would  stimulate  their  curiosity. 
One  of  these  toys  was  a  helicopter,  or  Cayley's  Top, 
which  would  rise  and  flutter  awhile  in  the  air. 

After  several  helicopters  of  their  own,  the  broth- 
ers made  original  models  of  kites,  and  Orville,  the 
younger,  attained  an  exceptional  skill  in  flying 
them.  Presently  Orville  and  Wilbur  were  making 


236  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

their  own  bicycles  and  astonishing  then*  neighbors 
by  public  appearances  on  a  specially  designed 
tandem.  The  first  accounts  which  they  read  of  ex- 
periments with  flying  machines  turned  their  inven- 
tive genius  into  the  new  field.  In  particular  the 
newspaper  accounts  at  that  time  of  Otto  Lilien- 
thal's  exhibitions  with  his  glider  stirred  their  in- 
terest and  set  them  on  to  search  the  libraries  for 
literature  on  the  subject  of  flying.  As  they  read  of 
the  work  of  Langley  and  others  they  concluded 
that  the  secret  of  flying  could  not  be  mastered 
theoretically  in  a  laboratory;  it  must  be  learned 
in  the  air.  It  struck  these  young  men,  trained  by 
necessity  to  count  pennies  at  their  full  value,  as 
"wasteful  extravagance"  to  mount  delicate  and 
costly  machinery  on  wings  which  no  one  knew  how 
to  manage.  They  turned  from  the  records  of  other 
inventors'  models  to  study  the  one  perfect  model, 
the  bird.  Said  Wilbur  Wright,  speaking  before 
the  Society  of  Western  Engineers,  at  Chicago : 

The  bird's  wings  are  undoubtedly  very  well  designed 
indeed,  but  it  is  not  any  extraordinary  efficiency  that 
strikes  with  astonishment,  but  rather  the  marvelous 
skill  with  which  they  are  used.  It  is  true  that  I  have 
seen  birds  perform  soaring  feats  of  almost  incredible 
nature  in  positions  where  it  was  not  possible  to  meas- 
ure the  speed  and  trend  of  the  wind,  but  whenever  it 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  AIR         237 

was  possible  to  determine  by  actual  measurements  the 
conditions  under  which  the  soaring  was  performed  it 
was  easy  to  account  for  it  on  the  basis  of  the  results 
obtained  with  artificial  wings.  The  soaring  problem 
is  apparently  not  so  much  one  of  better  wings  as  of 
better  operators.  x 

When  the  Wrights  determined  to  fly,  two  prob- 
lems which  had  beset  earlier  experimenters  had 
been  partially  solved.  Experience  had  brought  out 
certain  facts  regarding  the  wings;  and  invention 
had  supplied  an  engine.  But  the  laws  governing 
the  balancing  and  steering  of  the  machine  were 
unknown.  The  way  of  a  man  in  the  air  had  yet  to 
be  discovered. 

The  starting  point  of  their  theory  of  flight  seems 
to  have  been  that  man  was  endowed  with  an  in- 
telligence at  least  equal  to  that  of  the  bird;  and, 
that  with  practice  he  could  learn  to  balance  himself 
in  the  air  as  naturally  and  instinctively  as  on  the 
ground.  He  must  and  could  be,  like  the  bird,  the 
controlling  intelligence  of  his  machine.  To  quote 
Wilbur  Wright  again: 

It  seemed  to  us  that  the  main  reason  why  the  prob- 
lem had  remained  so  long  unsolved  was  that  no  one 
had  been  able  to  obtain  any  adequate  practice.  Lil- 
ienthal,  in  five  years  of  time,  had  spent  only  five  hours 

1  Cited  in  Turner,  The  Romance  of  Aeronautics. 


238  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

in  actual  gliding  through  the  air.  The  wonder  was  not 
that  he  had  done  so  little  but  that  he  had  accomplished 
so  much.  It  would  not  be  considered  at  all  safe  for  a 
bicycle  rider  to  attempt  to  ride  through  a  crowded  city 
street  after  only  five  hours'  practice  spread  out  in  bits 
of  ten  seconds  each  over  a  period  of  five  years,  yet 
Lilienthal  with  his  brief  practice  was  remarkably  suc- 
cessful in  meeting  the  fluctuations  and  eddies  of  wind- 
gusts.  We  thought  that  if  some  method  could  be 
found  by  which  it  would  be  possible  to  practice  by  the 
hour  instead  of  by  the  second,  there  would  be'a  hope  of 
advancing  the  solution  of  a  very  difficult  problem. 

The  brothers  found  that  winds  of  the  velocity 
they  desired  for  their  experiments  were  common  on 
the  coast  of  North  Carolina.  They  pitched  their 
camp  at  Kitty  Hawk  in  October,  1900,  and  made  a 
brief  and  successful  trial  of  their  gliding  machine. 
Next  year,  they  returned  with  a  much  larger 
machine;  and  in  1902  they  continued  their  experi- 
ments with  a  model  still  further  improved  from 
their  first  design.  Having  tested  their  theories 
and  become  convinced  that  they  were  definitely 
on  the  right  track,  they  were  no  longer  satisfied 
merely  to  glide.  They  set  about  constructing  a 
power  machine.  Here  a  new  problem  met  them. 
They  had  decided  on  two  screw  propellers  rotating 
in  opposite  directions  on  the  principle  of  wings  in 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  AIR         239 

flight;  but  the  proper  diameter,  pitch,  and  area  of 
blade  were  not  easily  arrived  at. 

On  December  17,  1903,  the  first  Wright  biplane 
was  ready  to  navigate  the  air  and  made  four  brief 
successful  flights.  Subsequent  flights  in  1904  dem- 
onstrated that  the  problem  of  equilibrium  had 
not  been  fully  solved;  but  the  experiments  of  1905 
banished  this  difficulty. 

The  responsibility  which  the  Wrights  placed 
upon  the  aviator  for  maintaining  his  equilibrium, 
and  the  tailless  design  of  then*  machine,  caused 
much  headshaking  among  foreign  flying  men  when 
Wilbur  Wright  appeared  at  the  great  aviation  meet 
in  France  in  1908.  But  he  won  the  Michelin  Prize 
of  eight  hundred  pounds  by  beating  previous  rec- 
ords for  speed  and  for  the  time  which  any  ma- 
chine had  remained  in  the  air.  He  gave  exhibitions 
also  in  Germany  and  Italy  and  instructed  Italian 
army  officers  in  the  flying  of  Wright  machines.  At 
this  time  Orville  was  giving  similar  demonstrations 
in  America.  Transverse  control,  the  warping  device 
invented  by  the  Wright  brothers  for  the  preservation 
of  lateral  balance  and  for  artificial  inclination  in 
making  turns,  has  been  employed  in  a  similar  or 
modified  form  in  most  airplanes  since  constructed. 

There  was  no  "mine"  or  "thine"  in  the  diction 


240  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

of  the  Wright  brothers;  only  "we"  and  "ours." 
They  were  joint  inventors;  they  shared  their  fame 
equally  and  all  their  honors  and  prizes  also  until 
the  death  of  Wilbur  in  1912.  They  were  the  first 
inventors  to  make  the  ancient  dream  of  flying  man 
a  reality  and  to  demonstrate  that  reality  to  the 
practical  world. 

When  the  NC  flying  boats  of  the  United  States 
navy  lined  up  at  Trepassey  in  May,  1919,  for  their 
Atlantic  venture,  and  the  press  was  full  of  pictures 
of  them,  how  many  hasty  readers,  eager  only  for 
news  of  the  start,  stopped  to  think  what  the 
initials  NC  stood  for? 

The  seaplane  is  the  chief  contribution  of  Glenn 
Hammond  Curtiss  to  aviation,  and  the  Navy  Cur- 
tiss  Number  Four,  which  made  the  first  transatlan- 
tic flight  in  history,  was  designed  by  him.  The 
spirit  of  cooperation,  expressed  in  pooling  ideas 
and  fame,  which  the  Wright  brothers  exemplified, 
is  seen  again  in  the  association  of  Curtiss  with  the 
navy  during  the  war.  NC  is  a  fraternity  badge 
signifying  equal  honors. 

Curtiss,  in  1900,  was  —  like  the  Wrights  —  the 
owner  of  a  small  bicycle  shop.  It  was  at  Ham- 
mondsport,  New  York.  He  was  an  enthusiastic 


RICH A un  HOE 

Wood  engraving  from  a  photograph. 


rn:nro\T  I.A\<;U-:Y 

Photograph  made  ia  1890,  by  Smilley.     In  the  National 
Washington. 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  AIR         241 

cyclist,  and  speed  was  a  mania  with  him.  He 
evolved  a  motor  cycle  with  which  he  broke  all 
records  for  speed  over  the  ground.  He  started  a 
factory  and  achieved  a  reputation  for  excellent 
motors.  He  designed  and  made  the  engine  for  the 
dirigible  of  Captain  Thomas  S.  Baldwin;  and  for 
the  first  United  States  army  dirigible  in  1905. 

Curtiss  carried  on  some  of  his  experiments  in 
association  with  Alexander  Graham  Bell,  who  was 
trying  to  evolve  a  stable  flying  machine  on  the 
principle  of  the  cellular  kite.  Bell  and  Curtiss, 
with  three  others,  formed  in  1907,  the  Aerial  Ex- 
perimental Association  at  Bell's  country  house  in 
Canada,  which  was  fruitful  of  results,  and  Curtiss 
scored  several  notable  triumphs  with  the  craft  they 
designed.  But  the  idea  of  a  machine  which  could 
descend  and  propel  itself  on  water  possessed  his 
mind,  and  in  1911  he  exhibited  at  the  aviation  meet 
in  Chicago  the  hydroaeroplane.  An  incident  there 
set  him  dreaming  of  the  life-saving  systems  on 
great  waters.  His  hydroaeroplane  had  just  re- 
turned to  its  hangar,  after  a  series  of  maneuvers, 
when  a  monoplane  in  flight  broke  out  of  control 
and  plunged  into  Lake  Michigan.  The  Curtiss 
machine  left  its  hangar  on  the  minute,  covered  the 
intervening  mile,  and  alighted  on  the  water  to  offer 

16 


242  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

aid.  The  presence  of  boats  made  the  good  offices 
of  the  hydroaeroplane  unnecessary  on  that  occa- 
sion; but  the  incident  opened  up  to  the  mind  of 
Curtiss  new  possibilities. 

In  the  first  years  of  the  World  War  Curtiss  built 
airplanes  and  flying  boats  for  the  Allies.  The 
United  States  entered  the  arena  and  called  for  his 
services.  The  Navy  Department  called  for  the 
big  flying  boat;  and  the  NC  type  was  evolved, 
which,  equipped  with  four  Liberty  Motors,  crossed 
the  Atlantic  after  the  close  of  the  war. 

The  World  War,  of  course,  brought  about  the 
magical  development  of  all  kinds  of  air  craft. 
Necessity  not  only  mothered  invention  but  forced 
it  to  cover  a  normal  half  century  of  progress  in  four 
years.  While  Curtiss  worked  with  the  navy,  the 
Dayton-Wright  factory  turned  out  the  famous 
DH  fighting  planes  under  the  supervision  of  Orville 
Wright.  The  second  initial  here  stands  for  Havil- 
land,  as  the  DH  was  designed  by  Geoffrey  de 
Havilland,  a  British  inventor. 

The  year  1919  saw  the  first  transatlantic  flights. 
The  NC4,  with  Lieutenant  Commander  Albert 
Gushing  Read  and  crew,  left  Trepassey,  New- 
foundland, on  the  16th  of  May  and  in  twelve  hours 
arrived  at  Horta,  the  Azores,  more  than  a  thousand 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  AIR         243 

miles  away.  All  along  the  course  the  navy  had 
strung  a  chain  of  destroyers,  with  signaling  appara- 
tus and  searchlights  to  guide  the  aviators.  On  the 
twenty-seventh,  NC4  took  off  from  San  Miguel, 
Azores,  and  in  nine  hours  made  Lisbon  —  Lisbon, 
capital  of  Portugal,  which  sent  out  the  first  bold 
mariners  to  explore  the  Sea  of  Darkness,  prior  to 
Columbus.  On  the  thirtieth,  NC4  took  off  for 
Plymouth,  England,  and  arrived  in  ten  hours  and 
twenty  minutes.  Perhaps  a  phantom  ship,  with 
sails  set  and  flags  blowing,  the  name  Mayflower  on 
her  hull,  rode  in  Plymouth  Harbor  that  day  to 
greet  a  New  England  pilot. 

On  the  14th  of  June  the  Vickers-Vimy  Rolls- 
Royce  biplane,  piloted  by  John  Alcock  and  with 
Arthur  Whitten  Brown  as  observer-navigator,  left 
St.  John's,  Newfoundland,  and  arrived  at  Clifden, 
Ireland,  in  sixteen  hours  twelve  minutes,  hav- 
ing made  the  first  non-stop  transatlantic  flight. 
Hawker  and  Grieve  meanwhile  had  made  the  same 
gallant  attempt  in  a  single-engined  Sopwith  ma- 
chine; and  had  come  down  in  mid-ocean,  after  fly- 
ing fourteen  and  a  half  hours,  owing  to  the  failure 
of  their  water  circulation.  Their  rescue  by  slow 
Danish  Mary  completed  a  fascinating  tale  of  heroic 
adventure. 


244  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION 

The  British  dirigible  R34,  with  Major  G.  H. 
Scott  in  command,  left  East  Fortune,  Scotland,  on 
the  2d  of  July,  and  arrived  at  Mineola,  New  York, 
on  the  sixth.  The  R34  made  the  return  voyage  in 
seventy-five  hours.  In  November,  1919,  Captain 
Sir  Ross  Smith  set  off  from  England  in  a  biplane 
to  win  a  prize  of  ten  thousand  pounds  offered  by 
the  Australian  Commonwealth  to  the  first  Aus- 
tralian aviator  to  fly  from  England  to  Australia  in 
thirty  days.  Over  France,  Italy,  Greece,  over  the 
Holy  Land,  perhaps  over  the  Garden  of  Eden, 
whence  the  winged  cherubim  drove  Adam  and  Eve, 
over  Persia,  India,  Siam,  the  Dutch  East  Indies  to 
Port  Darwin  in  northern  Australia;  and  then  south- 
eastward across  Australia  itself  to  Sydney,  the  bi- 
plane flew  without  mishap.  The  time  from  Houns- 
low,  England,  to  Port  Darwin  was  twenty-seven 
days,  twenty  hours,  and  twenty  minutes.  Early 
in  1920  the  Boer  airman  Captain  Van  Ryneveld 
made  the  flignt  from  Cairo  to  the  Cape. 

Commercial  development  of  the  airplane  and  the 
airship  commenced  after  the  war.  The  first  air 
service  for  United  States  mails  was,  in  fact,  in- 
augurated during  the  war,  between  New  York  and 
Washington.  The  transcontinental  service  was 
established  soon  afterwards,  and  a  regular  line 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  Am         245 

between  Key  West  and  Havana.  French  and  Brit- 
ish companies  began  to  operate  daily  between  Lon- 
don and  Paris  carrying  passengers  and  mail .  Airship 
companies  were  formed  in  Australia,  South  Africa, 
and  India.  In  Canada  airplanes  were  soon  being 
used  in  prospecting  the  Labrador  timber  regions, 
in  making  photographs  and  maps  of  the  northern 
wilderness,  and  by  the  Northwest  Mounted  Police. 
It  is  not  for  history  to  prophesy.  "Emblem  of 
much,  and  of  our  Age  of  Hope  itself,'*  Carlyle 
called  the  balloon  of  his  time,  born  to  mount  majes- 
tically but  "unguidably"  only  to  tumble  "whither 
Fate  will."  But  the  air  craft  of  our  day  is  guidable, 
and  our  Age  of  Hope  is  not  rudderless  nor  at  the 
mercy  of  Fate. 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

GENERAL 

A  CLEAR,  non-technical  discussion  of  the  basis  of  all 
industrial  progress  is  Power,  by  Charles  E.  Lucke 
(1911),  which  discusses  the  general  principle  of  the 
substitution  of  power  for  the  labor  of  men.  Many  of 
the  references  given  in  Colonial  Folkways,  by  C.  M. 
Andrews  (The  Chronicles  of  America,  vol.  ix),  are  valu- 
able for  an  understanding  of  early  industrial  conditions. 
The  general  course  of  industry  and  commerce  in  the 
United  States  is  briefly  told  by  Carroll  D.  Wright  in 
The  Industrial  Evolution  of  the  United  States  (1907),  by 
E.  L.  Bogart  in  The  Economic  History  of  the  United 
States  (1920),  and  by  Katharine  Coman  in  The  Indus- 
trial History  of  the  United  States  (1911).  A  Documen- 
tary History  of  American  Industrial  Society,  10  vols. 
(1910-11),  edited  by  John  R.  Commons,  is  a  mine  of 
material.  See  also  Emerson  D.  Fite,  Social  and  Indus- 
trial Conditions  in  the  North  During  the  Civil  War 
(1910).  The  best  account  of  the  inventions  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  is  The  Progress  of  Invention  in  the  Nine- 
teenth Century  by  Edward  W.  Byrn  (1900).  George 
lies  in  Leading  American  Inventors  (1912)  tells  the 
story  of  several  important  inventors  and  their  work. 
The  same  author  in  Flame,  Electricity  and  the  Camera 
(1900)  gives  much  valuable  information. 

247 


248  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

CHAPTER   I 

The  primary  source  of  information  on  Benjamin 
Franklin  is  contained  in  his  own  writings.  These  were 
compiled  and  edited  by  Jared  Sparks,  The  Works  of 
.  .  .  Franklin  .  .  .  with  Notes  and  a  Life  of  the 
Author,  10  vols.  (1836-40) ;  and  later  by  John  Bigelow, 
The  Complete  Works  of  Benjamin  Franklin;  including 
His  Private  as  well  as  His  Official  and  Scientific  Corre- 
spondence, and  Numerous  Letters  and  Documents  Now 
for  the  First  Time  Printed,  with  Many  Others  not  in- 
cluded in  Any  Former  Collection,  also,  the  Unmutilated 
and  Correct  Version  of  His  Autobiography,  10  vols. 
(1887-88).  Consult  also  James  Parton,  The  Life  and 
Times  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  2  vols.  (1864);  S.  G. 
Fisher,  The  True  Benjamin  Franklin  (1899);  Paul  Lei- 
cester Ford,  The  Many-Sided  Franklin  (1899);  John 
T.  Morse,  Benjamin  Franklin  (1889)  in  the  American 
Statesmen  series ;  and  Lindsay  Swift,  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin (1910)  in  Beacon  Biographies.  On  the  Patent 
Office :  Henry  L.  Ellsworth,  A  Digest  of  Patents  Issued 
by  the  United  States  from  1790  to  January  1,  1839 
(Washington,  1840) ;  also  the  regular  Reports  and  pub- 
lications of  the  United  States  Patent  Office. 

CHAPTER  II 

The  first  life  of  Eli  Whitney  is  the  Memoir  by  Deni- 
son  Olmsted  (1846),  and  a  collection  of  Whitney's  let- 
ters about  the  cotton  gin  may  be  found  in  The  Amer- 
ican Historical  Review,  vol.  in  (1897).  "Eli  Whit- 
ney and  His  Cotton  Gin,"  by  M.  F.  Foster,  is  in- 
cluded in  the  Transactions  of  the  New  England  Cotton 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE  249 

Manufacturers'  Association,  no.  67  (October,  1899). 
See  also  D  wight  Goddard,  A  Short  Story  of  Eli  Whitney 
(1904);  D.  A.  Tompkins,  Cotton  and  Cotton  Oil  (1901); 
James  A.  B.  Scherer,  Cotton  as  a  World  Power  (1916); 
B.C.  Bates,  The  Story  of  the  Cotton  Gin  (1899),  reprinted 
from  The  New  England  Magazine,  May,  1890;  and 
Eugene  Clyde  Brooks,  The  Story  of  Cotton  and  the 
Development  of  the  Cotton  States  (1911). 

CHAPTER  III 

For  an  account  of  James  Watt's  achievements,  see 
J.  Cleland,  Historical  Account  of  the  Steam  Engine 
(1825)  and  John  W.  Grant,  Watt  and  the  Steam  Age 
(1917).  On  Fulton:  R.  H.  Thurston,  Robert  Fulton 
(1891)  in  the  Makers  of  America  series;  A.  C.  Sutcliffe, 
Robert  Fulton  and  the  "  Clermont"  (1909);  H.  W.  Dick- 
inson, Robert  Fulton,  Engineer  and  Artist;  His  Life  and 
Works  (1913).  For  an  account  of  John  Stevens,  see 
George  lies,  Leading  American  Inventors  (1912),  and 
Dwight  Goddard,  A  Short  Story  of  John  Stevens  and 
His  Sons  in  Eminent  Engineers  (1905).  See  also  John 
Stevens,  Documents  Tending  to  Prove  the  Superior 
Advantages  of  Rail-Ways  and  Steam-Carriages  over 
Canal  Navigation  (1812),  reprinted  in  The  Magazine  of 
History  with  Notes  and  Queries,  Extra  Number  54 
(1917).  On  Evans:  "Oliver  Evans  and  His  Inven- 
tions," by  Coleman  Sellers,  in  The  Journal  of  the  Frank- 
lin Institute,  July,  1886,  vol.  cxxn. 

CHAPTER    IV 

On  the  general  subject  of  cotton  manufacture  and 
machinery,  see:  J.  L.  Bishop,  History  of  American 


250  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

Manufactures  from  1608  to  1860,  3  vols.  (1864-67); 
Samuel  Batchelder,  Introduction  and  Early  Progress  of 
the  Cotton  Manufacture  in  the  United  States  (1863); 
James  Montgomery,  A  Practical  Detail  of  the  Cotton 
Manufacture  of  the  United  States  of  America  (1840); 
Melvin  T.  Copeland,  The  Cotton  Manufacturing  Indus- 
try of  the  United  States  (1912);  and  John  L.  Hayes, 
American  Textile  Machinery  (1879).  Harriet  H. 
Robinson,  Loom  and  Spindle  (1898),  is  a  description  of 
the  life  of  girl  workers  in  the  early  factories  written  by 
one  of  them.  Charles  Dickens,  American  Notes,  Chap- 
ter IV,  is  a  vivid  account  of  the  life  in  the  Lowell  mills. 
See  also  Nathan  Appleton,  Introduction  of  the  Power 
Loom  and  Origin  of  Lowell  (1858) ;  H.  A.  Miles,  Lowell, 
as  It  Was,  and  as  It  Is  (1845),  and  G.  S.  White,  Memoir 
of  Samuel  Slater  (1836).  On  Elias  Howe,  see  Dwight 
Goddard,  A  Short  Story  of  Elias  Howe  in  Eminent 
Engineers  (1905). 

CHAPTER  V 

The  story  of  the  reaper  is  told  in :  Herbert  N.  Casson, 
Cyrus  Hall  McCormick;  His  Life  and  Work  (1909),  and 
The  Romance  of  the  Reaper  (1908),  and  Merritt  F. 
Miller,  Evolution  of  Reaping  Machines  (1902),  U.  S. 
Experiment  Stations  Office,  Bulletin  103.  Other  farm 
inventions  are  covered  in :  William  Macdonald,  Makers 
of  Modern  Agriculture  (1913);  Emile  Guarini,  "The 
Use  of  Electric  Power  in  Plowing"  in  The  Electrical 
Review,  vol.  XLIII;  A.  P.  Yerkes,  The  Gas  Tractor  in 
Eastern  Farming  (1918),  U.  S.  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture, Farmer's  Bulletin  1004;  and  Herbert  N.  Casson 
and  others,  Horse,  Truck  and  Tractor;  the  Coming  of 
Cheaper  Power  for  City  and  Farm  (1913). 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE  251 

CHAPTER  VI 

An  account  of  an  early  "agent  of  communica- 
tion" is^given  by  W.  F.  Bailey,  article  on  the  "Pony 
Express"  in  The  Century  Magazine,  vol.  xxxiv  (1898). 
For  the  story  of  the  telegraph  and  its  inventors,  see: 
S.  I.  Prime,  Life  of  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse  (1875) ;  S.  F.  B. 
Morse,  The  Electro- Magnetic  Telegraph  (1858)  and 
Examination  of  the  Telegraphic  Apparatus  and  the  Pro- 
cess in  Telegraphy  (1869);  Guglielmo  Marconi,  The 
Progress  of  Wireless  Telegraphy  (1912)  in  the  Transac- 
tions of  the  New  York  Electrical  Society,  no.  15;  and  Ray 
Stannard  Baker,  "Marconi's  Achievement"  in  Mc- 
Clure's  Magazine,  vol.  xvm  (1902).  On  the  telephone, 
see  Herbert  N.  Casson,  History  of  the  Telephone  (1910) ; 
and  Alexander  Graham  Bell,  The  Telephone  (1878). 
On  the  cable :  Charles  Bright,  The  Story  of  the  Atlantic 
Cable  (1903).  For  facts  in  the  history  of  printing  and 
descriptions  of  printing  machines,  see:  Edmund  G. 
Gress,  American  Handbook  of  Printing  (1907);  Robert 
Hoe,  A  Short  History  of  the  Printing  Press  and  of  the 
Improvements  in  Printing  Machinery  (1902);  and  Otto 
Schoenrich,  Biography  of  Ottmar  Mergenthaler  and 
History  of  the  Linotype  (1898),  written  under  Mr. 
Mergenthaler's  direction.  On  the  best-known  New 
York  newspapers,  see :  H.  Hapgood  and  A.  B.  Maurice, 
"The  Great  Newspapers  of  the  United  States;  the 
New  York  Newspapers,"  in  The  Bookman,  vols.  xiv  and 
xv  (1902).  On  the  typewriter,  see  Charles  Edward 
Weller,  The  Early  History  of  the  Typewriter  (1918). 
On  the  camera,  Paul  Lewis  Anderson,  "The  Story  of 
Photography"  (1918)  in  The  Mentor,  vol.  vi,  no.  12; 
and  on  the  motion  picture,  Colin  N.  Bennett,  The 


252  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

Handbook  of  Kinematography;  The  History,  Theory  and 
Practice  of  Motion  Photography  and  Projection,  London: 
Kinematograph  Weekly  (1911). 

CHAPTER   VII 

For  information  on  the  subject  of  rubber  and  the  life 
of  Charles  Goodyear,  see:  H.  Wickham,  On  the  Planta- 
tion, Cultivation  and  Curing  of  Para  Indian  Rubber, 
London  (1908);  Francis  Ernest  Lloyd,  Guayule,  a 
Rubber  Plant  of  the  Chihuahuan  Desert,  Washington 
(1911),  Carnegie  Institute  publication  no.  139;  Charles 
Goodyear,  Gum  Elastic  and  Its  Varieties  (1853) ;  James 
Parton,  Famous  Americans  of  Recent  Times  (1867); 
and  The  Rubber  Industry,  Being  the  Official  Report  of 
the  Proceedings  of  the  International  Rubber  Congress 
(London,  1911),  edited  by  Joseph  Torey  and  A.  Staines 
Manders. 

CHAPTER   VIII 

J.  W.  Roe,  English  and  American  Tool  Builders 
(1916),  and  J.  V.  Woodworth,  American  Tool  Making 
and  Interchangeable  Manufacturing  (1911),  give  general 
accounts  of  great  American  mechanics. 

For  an  account  of  John  Stevens  and  Robert  L.  and 
E.  A.  Stevens,  see  George  lies,  Leading  American  In- 
ventors (1912);  Dwight  Goddard,  A  Short  Story  of 
John  Stevens  and  His  Sows  in  Eminent  Engineers  (1905), 
and  R.  H.  Thurston,  The  Messrs.  Stevens,  of  Hoboken, 
as  Engineers,  Naval  Architects  and  Philanthropists 
(1874),  Journal  of  the  Franklin  Institute,  October, 
1874.  For  Whitney's  contribution  to  machine  shop 
methods,  see  Olmsted's  Memoir  already  cited  and  Roe 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE  253 

and  Woodworth,  already  cited.  For  Blanchard,  see 
Dwight  Goddard,  A  Short  Story  of  Thomas  Blanchard 
in  Eminent  Engineers  (1905),  and  for  Samuel  Colt,  see 
his  own  "On  the  Application  of  Machinery  to  the 
Manufacture  of  Rotating  Chambered-Breech  Fire- 
Arms,  and  Their  Peculiarities"  (1855),  an  excerpt  from 
the  Minutes  of  Proceedings  of  the  Institute  of  Civil 
Engineers,  vol.  xi  (1853),  and  Henry  Barnard,  Arms- 
mear;  the  Home,  the  Arm,  and  the  Armory  of  Samuel 
Colt  (1866). 

CHAPTER  IX 

The  Story  of  Electricity  (1919)  is  a  popular  history 
edited  by  T.  C.  Martin  and  S.  L.  Coles.  A  more 
specialized  account  of  electrical  inventions  may  be 
found  in  George  Bartlett  Prescott's  The  Speaking 
Telephone,  Electric  Light,  and  Other  Recent  Electrical 
Inventions  (1879). 

For  Joseph  Henry's  achievements,  see  his  own  Con- 
tributions to  Electricity  and  Galvanism  (1835-42)  and 
On  the  Application  of  the  Principle  of  the  Galvanic  Mul- 
tiplier to  Electro- Magnetic  Apparatus  (1831),  and  the 
accounts  of  others  in  Henry  C.  Cameron's  Reminis- 
cences of  Joseph  Henry  and  W.  B.  Taylor's  Historical 
Sketch  of  Henry's  Contribution  to  the  Electro- Magnetic 
Telegraph  (1879),  Smithsonian  Report,  1878. 

A  List  of  References  on  the  Life  and  Inventions  of 
Thomas  A.  Edison  may  be  found  in  the  Division  of 
Bibliography,  U.  S.  Library  of  Congress  (1916).  See 
also  F.  L.  Dyer  and  T.  C.  Martin,  Edison;  His  Life  and 
Inventions  (1910),  and  "  Mr.  Edison's  Reminiscences 
of  the  First  Central  Station"  in  The  Electrical  Review, 
vol.  xxxvui.  On  other  special  topics  see:  F.  E. 


254  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

Leupp,  George  Westinghouse,  His  Life  and  Achievements 
(1918);  Elihu  Thomson,  Induction  of  Electric  Currents 
and  Induction  Coils  (1891),  Journal  of  the  Franklin 
Institute,  August,  1891 ;  and  Alex  Dow,  The  Production 
of  Electricity  by  Steam  Power  (1917). 

CHAPTER   X 

Charles  C.  Turner,  The  Romance  of  Aeronautics 
(1912);  The  Curtiss  Aviation  Book,  by  Glenn  H.  Curtiss 
and  Augustus  Post  (1912);  Samuel  Pierpont  Langley 
and  Charles  M.  Manly,  Langley  Memoir  on  Mechanical 
Flight  (Smithsonian  Institution,  1911);  Our  Atlantic 
Attempt,  by  H.  G.  Hawker  and  K.  Mackenzie  Grieve 
(1919);  Flying  the  Atlantic  in  Sixteen  Hours,  by  Sir 
Arthur  Whitten  Brown  (1920);  Practical  Aeronautics, 
by  Charles  B.  Hay  ward,  with  an  Introduction  by  Or- 
ville  Wright  (1912);  Aircraft;  Its  Development  in  War 
and  Peace,  by  Evan  J.  David  (1919).  Accounts  of  the 
flights  across  the  Atlantic  are  given  in  The  Aerial  Year 
Book  and  Who's  Who  in  the  Air  (1920),  and  the  story 
of  NC4  is  told  in  The  Flight  Across  the  Atlantic,  issued 
by  the  Department  of  Education,  Curtiss  Aeroplane 
and  Motor  Corporation  (1919). 


INDEX 


Acheson,  E.  B.,  invents  car- 
borundum, 216-17 

Adams,  Henry,  History  of  the 
United  States,  quoted,  111 

Adams,  J.  Q.,  and  Morse,  136; 
and  Eli  Whitney,  184 

Aerial  Experimental  Associ- 
ation, 241 

Aerial  navigation,  220  et  seq.; 
bibliography,  254 

Aeroplanes,  see  Aerial  navi- 
gation, Airplanes 

Agobard,  Bishop,  writes  to 
prove  impossibility  of  flying, 
226 

Agricultural  machinery,  bibli- 
ography, 250;  see  also  Agri- 
cultural revolution,  names 
of  implements 

Agricultural  revolution,  110  et 
seq. 

Airplanes,  225  et  seq.;  see  also 
Aerial  navigation 

Albany  Conference,  16 

Alcock,  John,  transatlantic 
flight,  243 

Alexander  the  Great  intro- 
duces cotton  into  Europe,  32 

Alexanderson,  and  wireless 
telegraphy,  146 

Allen,  Horatio,  brings  loco- 
motive from  England,  78 

Allston,  Washington,  Ameri- 
can artist,  and  Morse,  132- 
133.  136 

Almy,  William,  partner  of 
Moses  Brown,  86,  87 

Aluminum,  216 


American  Philosophical  So- 
ciety, 14 

American  Turtle,  submarine, 
64  (note) 

Ampere,  A.  M.,  French  investi- 
gator of  electricity,  195 

Appleby,  J.  F.,  invents  binder, 
119 

Appleton,  Nathan,  Boston 
merchant,  89;  and  Lowell 
enterprise,  90,  91,  92 

Arkwright,  Richard,  invents 
water-frame,  35;  looms  in- 
troduced into  New  England, 
97 

Arlandes,  Marquis  d',  first 
balloon  flight,  221;  and 
Franklin,  224 

Arms,  see  Firearms 

Automobiles,  202;  storage  bat- 
tery, 216 

Bachelder,  John,  and  sewing 
machine,  104 

Bacon,  Roger,  on  subject  of 
flight,  226 

Bailey,  Jeremiah,  invents 
mower,  121 

Baily,  Francis,  patent  for 
punches  for  type,  29 

Baldwin,  Matthias,  loco- 
motives, 82 

Baldwin,  Captain  T.  S.,  diri- 
gible, 241 

Balloons,  221-25 

Baltimore,  Democratic  Na- 
tional Convention  (1844) 
uses  telegraph,  143-44 


255 


256 


INDEX 


Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad, 

80 
Banks,  Sir  Joseph,  Franklin's 

letter  to,  223-24 
Banks,  N.  P.,  cousin  of  Elias 

Howe,  99 
Barlow,      Joel,     and      Fulton, 

63 
Barnard,     Henry,     Armsmear, 

quoted,  191 
Bayard,     William,    at    Castle 

Point,  177 
Beach,  A.  E.,  typewriter,  150; 

device  for  embossing  letters 

for  blind,  150 
Bell,    A.    G.,    telephone,    146, 

196;    and    Henry,     201-02; 

Aerial  Experimental  Associ- 
ation, 241 
Bell,   Patrick,   invents  reaper, 

116 
Besnier,  invents  flying  machine, 

227 

Best  Friend  of  Charleston,  loco- 
motive, 80 
Binders,  119-20 
Blake,  L.  B.,  sole-sewing  ma- 
chine, 108 
Blanchard,   Thomas,   inventor 

of    machine    tools,    185-87; 

bibliography,  253 
Blenkinsop,      steam      railway 

experiments,  78 
Bliss,  G.  W.,  Elias  Howe  and, 

103 
Boott,  Kirk,  partner  in  Lowell 

mills,  91 
Boston,  Franklin's  home  in,  1- 

3;  Franklin  visits,  9 
Boulton,  Matthew,  associate  of 

Watt,  55,  56 
Braddock,    General,    Franklin 

and,  16-17 
Bradford,  William,  printer  in 

New  York,  3 

Bradley,    C.   S.,   electrical   in- 
ventor, 218 
Braithwaite,  John,  locomotive 

race,  79 


Bridgewater,  Francis,  Duke  of, 
and  Fulton,  62 

Brindley,  James,  and  Fulton, 
62 

Brodie  (Colorado),  hydro- 
station  at,  219 

Brown,  A.  W.,  transatlantic 
flight,  243 

Brown,  Moses,  and  spinning 
machine,  86,  87 

Brush,  C.  F.,  electric  lighting, 
203 

Burt,  William,  typewriter, 
150 

Bushnell,  David,  invents  sub- 
marine, 64  (note) 

Cable,  Atlantic,  145-46;  bibli- 
ography, 251 

Calcium  carbide,  217 

Calhoun,  J.  C.,  Lowell  and, 
90 

California,  market  for  clothing, 
107 

Camden  and  Amboy  Railroad, 
80,  178 

Camera,  see  Photography 

Candles,  patent  for  method  of 
making,  29 

Carborundum,  216-17 

Cartwright,  Edmund,  invents 
self-acting  loom,  36,  97 

Castle  Point, Stevens's  home  at, 
177 

Castner,  H.  Y.f  aluminum 
manufacture,  216 

Cavendish,  Henry,  English  in- 
vestigator of  electricity, 
195 

Cayley,  Sir  George,  principles 
of  flying,  229 

Center,  Joab,  hay  spreader, 
122 

Chambers's  Encyclopaedia  as 
newspaper  feature,  6 

Charles,  J.  A.  C.,  French  in- 
ventor of  balloon,  222,  224 

Charleston  and  Hamburg  Rail- 
road, 80 


INDEX 


257 


Charlotte  Dundas,  steamboat, 
65 

Chicago,  McCormick  in,  118 

Choate,  Rufus,  Goodyear  vs. 
Day,  157 

Circulation  of  blood,  Harvey 
discovers,  12  (note) 

Civil  War,  marks  beginning  of 
new  period  in  industry, 
124 

Clermont,  Fulton's  steamboat, 
60,  65-67,  68 

Cleveland,  first  electric  light- 
ing in,  203 

Clocks,  pendulum  clocks  in 
Middle  Ages,  12  (note) 

Clothing,  manufacture  of,  106- 
107 

Clymer,  George,  Columbian 
press,  147 

Collinson,  Peter,  and  Franklin, 
9-10 

Colt,  Samuel,  revolver,  187- 
189;  arms  factory,  190-91; 
bibliography,  253 

Commerce  at  end  of  18th  cen- 
tury, 25-26 

Communication,  Agents  of, 
128  et  seq.;  bibliography, 
251;  see  also  Transportation 

Compass,  Mariner's,  ancients 
know  of,  12  (note) 

Congress,  first  Patent  Act 
(1790),  27-30,  176;  second 
Patent  Act  (1793),  30-31; 
Evans  petitions  for  exten- 
sion of  patent,  72-73;  Morse 
petitions  for  appropriation, 
139,  141 

Coolidge,  W.  D.,  ductile  tungs- 
ten, 212-13 

Cooper,  J.  F.,  attack  on  Adams, 
136 

Cooper,  Peter,  designs  loco- 
motive, 80;  Atlantic  Cable, 
145-46 

Corliss,  G.  H.,  engine,  83 

Corn-binders,  122 

Corn-shellers,  122-23 


Cornell,  Ezra,  telegraph  con. 
struction,  142-43,  144 

Cotton,  history  of  use,  32-33; 
introduced  into  colonies,  33- 
34;  difficulties  in  cleaning  of, 
34-35;  inventions  for  manu- 
facture of,  35-36;  tee  alto 
Cotton  gin,  Cotton  manu- 
facture, Textile  industry 

Cotton  gin,  patented,  30-31; 
Eli  Whitney  and,  32  et  seq.\ 
infringements  of  patent,  44; 
influence,  84;  and  Civil 
War,  124;  effect  on  South, 
125;  bibliography,  248-49 

Cotton  manufacture,  bibli- 
ography, 249-50;  tee  alto 
Textile  industry 

Coulomb,  C.  A.  de,  French  in- 
vestigator of  electricity,  185 

Courtenay,  Viscount,  and  Ful- 
ton, 62 

Crompton,  Samuel,  invents 
mule,  35 

Cumberland  Road,  77 

Curtis,  Harriot  ("  Mina 
Myrtle"),  in  Lowell  mills, 
93 

Curtis,  steam  turbine,  218 

Curtiss,  G.  H.,  airplanes,  240- 
242 

Daft,     Leo,     contribution    to 

trolley  system,  214 
Daguerre,  L.  J.  M.,  and  pho- 
tography, 140 

Dana,  J.  F.,  and  Morse,  134 
Davenport,    Thomas,    pioneer 

of  automobile   in   America, 

202 
Davis,  Ari,  Howe  in  shop  of, 

99 
Davis,  Jefferson,  on  Whitney's 

riBes,  183 
Day,    Jeremiah,    and    Morse, 

130-31 

Deere,  John,  ploughs,  113 
Deering,    William,   competitor 

of  McCormick,  119 


258 


INDEX 


De  Forest,  Lee,  wireless  teleg- 
raphy, 146 

Densmore,  James,  typewriter, 
151,  152 

De  Witt  Clinton,  locomotive, 
81 

Dickens,  Charles,  visits 
Lowell,  94;  American  Notes, 
quoted,  94-96 

Dinwiddie,  Governor  of  Vir- 
ginia, problem  of  funds  for 
defense,  16 

Draper,  J.  W.,  photography, 
140,  153 

Drills,  115 

Du  Fay,  French  investigator 
of  electricity,  195 

Dulles,  J.  M.,  letter  describing 
Morse,  131-32 

Dyer  and  Martin,  Ediaon, 
quoted,  209 

East  Bridgewater  (Massachu- 
setts), spinning  machine 
made  in,  85 

East  India  Company  import 
cotton  fabrics,  32-33 

Eastman,  George,  kodak,  153- 
154 

Eastman  Company,  introduces 
film  cartridge,  154;  motion 
picture  films,  155 

Eaton,  Theophilus,  Goodyear's 
ancestor  associated  with, 
165 

Edison,  John,  grandfather  of 
T.  A.,  204 

Edison,  Samuel,  father  of  T. 
A.,  204 

Edison,  T.  A.,  196;  phono- 
graph, 152,  210;  motion 
pictures,  154;  "kinetoscope," 
155;  antecedents,  203-04; 
birth  (1847),  204;  boyhood, 
204-06;  tramp  telegrapher, 
206;  in  Boston,  206-07; 
automatic  vote  recorder, 
207;  stock  ticker,  207;  du- 
plex telegraph,  207;  goes  to 


New  York,  207;  firm  of 
Pope,  Edison,  and  Company; 
208;  improved  stock  ticker, 
208;  shop  in  Newark,  208; 
automatic  telegraph,  208, 
209;  cable  experiments,  208; 
quadruple  telegraph,  208, 
209;  district  messenger  call- 
box  system,  209;  telephone, 
209;  electro-motograph,  210; 
at  Menlo  Park,  210;  light- 
ing system,  210-12;  dynamo, 
211;  incandescent  lamp,  210- 
211;  experimental  electric 
railway,  214;  "Wizard  of 
Menlo  Park,"  215;  at  West 
Orange,  215;  storage  battery, 
216;  bibliography,  253 

Edwards,  Henrietta,  marries 
Eli  Whitney,  183 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  grand- 
father of  Mrs.  Eli  Whitney, 
183 

Edwards,  Judge  Pierpont, 
father  of  Mrs.  Eli  Whitney, 
183 

Electric  lighting,  203,  210- 
213 

Electric  railways,  214 

Electricity,  194  et  seg.;  Frank- 
lin's discoveries,  9-11;  bibli- 
ography, 253-54 

Ellsworth,  Annie  E.,  informs 
Morse  of  passage  of  appro- 
priation bill,  142;  and  first 
use  of  telegraph,  143 

Ericsson,  John,  experiments 
with  steam  locomotives,  78, 
79;  builds  Monitor,  179 

Erie  Canal,  Fulton  on  com- 
mission, 68;  Stevens  ad- 
dresses commissioners,  75; 
completed  (1825),  77 

Evans,  Oliver,  175;  application 
of  steam,  23;  machine  for 
flour  manufacture,  29,  70, 
71,  72;  invents  high-pressure 
engine,  55-56,  70,  71;  quoted, 
69-70;  early  life,  70-71; 


INDEX 


Evans,  Oliver — Continued 
Millwright  and  Miller's 
Guide,  71;  Oruktor  Amphi- 
lolos,  72,  83;  Young  Engi- 
neer's GuideJS;  death(1819), 
74;  prophecy  as  to  use  of 
locomotive,  74;  bibliography, 
249 

Faraday,  Michael,  English  in- 
vestigator of  electricity,  195; 
and  Henry,  197;  dynamo, 
202 

Farley,  Harriet,  in  Lowell 
factory,  93 

Farm  inventions,  see  Agri- 
cultural machinery 

Farmer,  M.  G.,  electric-driven 
locomotive  (1847),  202 

Fessenden,  R.  A.,  and  wireless 
telegraphy,  146 

Field,  C.  W.,  and  Atlantic 
Cable,  145-46 

Field,  S.  D.,  electric  railway, 
214 

Firearms,  Whitney  manu- 
factures, 180-82,  183; 
North's  plant,  182;  machine 
tools  and  standardization  of 
parts,  185;  Colt  as  inventor 
and  manufacturer,  187-91 

Fisher,  George,  and  Howe, 
100 

Fitch,  John,  steamboat,  22-23, 
29,  59;  patent  for  distilling 
alcohol,  30;  life,  58-59 

Floridas,  Spanish  possession 
(1790),  23 

Folger,  Abiah,  mother  of 
Franklin,  1 

Folger,  Peter,  grandfather  of 
Franklin,  1 

France,  Franklin  in,  19-21; 
Treaty  of  Alliance,  21;  Ful- 
ton in,  63;  balloon  experi- 
ments, 220-24 

Francis,  S.  W.,  typewriter, 
150 

Franklin,    Benjamin,    parent*, 


1;  birth  (1706),  1;  child- 
hood, 2;  Autobiography,  2; 
apprenticed,  3;  journey  to 
Philadelphia,  S;  finds  em- 
ployment, 3;  goes  to  London, 
4;  A  Dissertation  en  Liberty 
and  Necessity,  4;  returns  to 
Philadelphia,  4;  founds  Jun- 
to, 5;  established  in  business, 
5;  The  Nature  and  Necessity 
of  a  Paper  Currency,  5;  and 
Pennsylvania  Gazette,  6-7, 
149;  Poor  Richard's  Alman- 
ack, 7;  keeps  a  shop,  7; 
frugality,  8;  Journal  of  a 
Voyage  from  London  to  Phila- 
delphia, 8;  invents  stove.  9; 
bifocal  spectacles,  9;  interest 
in  natural  phenomena,  8-12; 
discoveries  in  electricity,  9- 
11;  elected  member  of  Royal 
Society,  11;  influence,  12-13; 
establishes  first  circulating 
library,  13;  founds  academy, 
13;  Plain  Truth,  IS;  and 
American  Philosophical  So- 
ciety, 14;  Deputy  Postmaster 
General,  14-15;  "Albany 
Plan  of  Union,"  15-16;  and 
Braddock,  16-17;  sent  to 
London  by  Assembly,  18; 
and  the  Revolution,  18-21; 
in  Continental  Congress,  19; 
accomplishments  (1775-76), 
19;  envoy  to  France  (1776), 
19-21;  President  of  Council 
of  Pennsylvania,  21;  Con- 
vention of  1787,  21;  death 
(1790),  23;  and  balloons, 
220-25;  bibliography,  248 

Franklin,  James,  brother  of 
Benjamin,  2-3 

Franklin,  Josiah,  father  of 
Benjamin,  1 

Franklin,  William,  son  of  Ben- 
jamin, 18 

Franklin  Institute,  139 

Franklin  stove,  9 

French  and  Indian  Wars,  15-18 


260 


INDEX 


Fulton,  Robert,  and  Henry, 
58;  as  an  artist,  61-62;  early 
mechanical  ability,  61;  in 
England,  62;  invents  means 
of  sawing  marble,  62-63; 
improves  wheel  for  spinning 
flax,  63;  machine  for  making 
rope,  63;  method  of  raising 
canal  boats,  63;  improve- 
ment in  tanning,  63;  A 
Treatise  on  the  Improvement 
of  Canal  Navigation,  63;  goes 
to  France,  63;  interest  in 
submarines,  63-64;  interest 
in  steamboat,  64-65;  Cler- 
mont,  60,  65-68;  reasons  for 
success,  67;  bibliography, 
249 

Gale,  L.  D.,  colleague  of 
Morse,  138;  partnership  in 
telegraph,  139,  142  (note) 

Galvani,  Aloisio,  Italian  in- 
vestigator of  electricity,  195 

Georgia,  population  (1790),  23; 
Whitney  in,  38  et  seq.; 
Whitney's  suits,  44-45,  51 

Gifford,  George,  suggests  sew- 
ing machine  "combination," 
105 

Gilbert,  William,  father  of 
electricity,  194;  On  the  Mag- 
net, 195 

Girard,  Stephen,  Philadelphia 
merchant,  26 

Glidden,  Carlos,  suggests  type- 
writer, 151 

Goodwin,  Hannibal,  cellulose 
film,  154 

Goodyear,  Amasa,  father  of 
Charles,  165,  166 

Goodyear,  Charles,  Goodyear 
vs.  Day,  157-60;  beginning 
of  interest  in  rubber,  164-65; 
birth  (1800),  165;  early  life, 
166;  imprisonment  for  debt, 
166-67;  experiments  with 
rubber,  167-69;  discovers 
process  of  vulcanization,  169; 


hardships,  170-72;  patent 
(1844),  172;  later  life,  174; 
bibliography,  252 

Goodyear,  Stephen,  ancestor 
of  Charles,  165 

Goodyear  vs.  Day,  157-60 

Gorham,  M.  L.,  invents  binder 
using  twine,  119 

Gould,  Jay,  Edison  and,  209 

Gravitation,  Newton  discovers 
law  of,  12  (note) 

Gray,  Stephen,  English  in- 
vestigator of  electricity,  195 

Great  Britain,  steam  engine, 
53-55;  monopoly  of  me- 
chanical contrivances,  65; 
railway  invention  in,  77-78, 
79;  textile  industry  in,  84- 
85;  Colt  in,  191;  Edison  in- 
troduces automatic  teleg- 
raphy into,  208 

Great  War,  air  craft  in,  242 

Great  Western,  first  trans- 
atlantic steamship,  69; 
Morse  on,  139 

Greene,  Mrs.  Nathanael,  and 
Whitney,  38,  40;  marries 
Miller,  41 

Grieve,  attempted  trans- 
atlantic flight,  243 

Grover  and  Baker,  manu- 
facturers of  sewing  machines, 
106 

Guericke,  Otto  von,  German 
investigator  of  electricity, 
195 

Gusmao,  Bartholomeo  de,  in- 
vents flying  machine  (1709), 
227 

Hackworth,  Timothy,  maker 
of  locomotive,  79 

Hall,  C.  M.,  invents  method  of 
aluminum  manufacture,  216 

Hammond,  "Correspondence 
of  Eli  Whitney,"  cited,  40 
(note) 

Hancock,  John,  Boston  mer- 
chant, 26 


INDEX 


261 


Hanson,  Harriet  (Mrs.   W.  S. 

Robinson), in  Lowell  factory, 

93 
Hargreaves,     James,     invents 

spinning  jenny,  35 
Harvesting    machinery,     115- 

123 
Haviland,  Geoffrey  de,  British 

airplane  inventor,  242 
Hawker,      attempted      trans- 
atlantic flight,  243 
Hayrakes,  122 
Hendrick,  B.  J.,  The  Age  of  Big 

Business,  cited,   117    (note), 

146,  209  (note) 

Henry,  Joseph,  investigator  of 
electricity,  195-96,  200;  dis- 
coveries, 196-97;  principle 
of  electric  telegraph,  198-99; 
at  Princeton,  199;  Secretary 
of  Smithsonian  Institution, 
200-01;  on  Lighthouse 
Board,  201;  and  Morse,  201; 
and  Bell,  201-02;  blazes  way 
for  electric  motor,  202;  dy- 
namo, 202;  bibliography, 
253 

Henry,  William,  constructs 
steamboat,  58 

Herald,  New  York,  146-47 

Herrera,  Spanish  historian,  on 
rubber  balls,  161 

Hewitt,  A.  S.,  quoted,  177 

Heyl,  Henry,  stages  first 
motion  pictures,  154-55 

Highland  and  Agricultural 
Society  of  Edinburgh,  Bell 
receives  prize  from,  116 

Hoe,    Robert,    printing    press, 

147,  148 

Hoe,  R.  M.,  son  of  Robert,  in- 
vents rotary  press,  148 

Holmes,  Hogden,  improves 
cotton  gin,  51 

Hood,  Thomas,  The  Song  of  the 
Shirt,  98 

Hopkins,  Samuel,  first  to  re- 
ceive patent  under  Patent 
Act,  28 


Howe,  Elias,  birth  (1819X  98- 
early  life,  98-99;  invents 
sewing  machine.  100-02;  in 
London,  102;  poverty,  103; 
infringements,  103-04;  set- 
tlement of  case  favors,  104; 
combination  of  inventors 
and  manufacturers,  105-06; 
bibliography,  250 

Hulbert,  A.  B.,  The  Paths  of 
Inland  Commerce,  cited,  68 
(note) 

Hunt,  Walter,  invents  sewing 
machine,  100,  104 

Hussey,  Obed,  patents  reaper, 
116,  117,  121 

Hydroaeroplane,  241-42 

lies,  George,  Leading  American 
Inventors,  cited,  177  (note) 

Industrial  Revolution,  36 

Industry,  organization  in 
United  States  (1790),  25 

Inglis,  Charles,  and  Howe, 
103 

Ink,  Franklin  makes,  4 

Jackson,  P.  T.f  brother-in-law 

of  Lowell,  89;  mills  at  Wal- 

tham,  90-91 
Jefferson,    Thomas,    Secretary 

of   State,   39;   plough,    112; 

letter  to  Jay,  cited,  181 
John  Bull,  locomotive,  81 
Junto,  5,  9,  14 

Kay,  John,  invents  flying 
shuttle,  35 

Keimer,  Samuel,  employs 
Franklin,  3,  4;  bankruptcy, 
6 

Keith,  Sir  William,  Governor 
of  Pennsylvania,  4 

Kentucky,  pioneers  in  (1790), 
24 

Kertland,  Philip,  Lynn  shoe- 
maker, 108 

Ketchum,  W.  F.,  invents  mow- 
ing machine,  122 


262 


INDEX 


"Kinetoscope,"  155 

Knowles,       Hazard,       invents 

hinged        cutting-bar        for 

mower,  121 

Lana,  Francisco,  airship,  227 

Lane,  John,  plough,  113 

Lane,  John,  son  of  first,  pat- 
ents steel  plough,  113-14 

Langley,  S.  P.,  invents  air- 
plane, 229-35 

Langmuir,  wireless  telegraphy, 
146 

Lanston,  Tolbert,  invents 
monotype,  149 

Larcom,  Lucy,  An  Idyl  of 
Work,  93 

Lathe,  Copying,  Blanchard 
invents,  186 

Lathrop,  John,  Franklin's 
letter  to,  22 

Lawrence,  Abbott,  and  Lowell 
mills,  93 

Lawrence,  Amos,  and  Lowell 
mills,  93 

Leonardo  da  Vinci,  artist  and 
inventor,  61;  on  subject  of 
flight,  226 

Liberty  Motors,  242 

Lightning  rod,  195 

Lilienthal,  Otto,  invents  glider, 
236 

Linotype,  149 

Livingston,  R.  R.,  American 
Minister  to  France,  64;  and 
Fulton,  64-65;  Clermont 
named  for  estate  of,  65-66; 
Stevens  requests  influence 
for  railway,  75;  statement  of 
objection  to  railways,  76 

Locomotives,  birth  of  modern, 
79;  development  of,  80-82; 
see  also  Railroads,  Steam 
engines 

Looms,  36;  see  also  Textile 
industry 

Lowell,  F.  C.,  establishes 
weaving  mills,  89,  90;  death 
(1817),  90 


Lowell  (Massachusetts), found- 
ed, 91-93;  Dickens  describes, 
94-96;  changes  in,  96-97; 
bibliography,  250 

Lowell  Offering,  The,  94,  95- 
96 

Lumiere,  invents  projector  for 
motion  pictures,  155 

McCormick,  C.  H.,  patents 
reaper,  116;  sale  of  ma- 
chines, 117;  moves  West,  118; 
business  capacity,  118;  im- 
provements in  reaper,  119 

McKay,  Gordon,  sole-sewing 
machine,  108 

McKinley,  William,  interest  in 
Langley's  airplane,  233 

Machine  shop,  pioneers  of, 
175  et  seq. 

Machine  tools,  see  Machine 
shop 

Macintosh,  Charles,  invents 
waterproof  cloth,  163 

Maine,  population  (1790),  23 

Manly,  C.  M.,  assists  Langley, 
233-34 

Manning,  William,  invents 
reaper,  116,  117 

Marconi,  Guglielmo,  wireless 
telegraph,  146 

Menlo  Park  (New  Jersey), 
Edison's  laboratories  at, 
210;  experimental  electric 
railway  at,  214 

Mercury,  rival  of  Pennsylvania 
Gazette,  6 

Mergenthaler,  Ottmar,  invents 
linotype,  149 

Merrimac  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany, 91 

Miller,  Lewis,  mowing  ma- 
chine, 122 

Miller,  Phineas,  and  Whitney, 
38,  41,  43,  44,  45,  46;  death, 
47 

Mohawk  and  Hudson  Rail- 
road, 80 

Monitor,  ironclad  boat,  179 


INDEX 


Monotype,  149 

Montgolfier,  invents  balloon, 
222,  223-24 

Montgomery,  James,  on 
Lowell  mills,  96 

Moody,  Paul,  partner  in 
Lowell  enterprise,  89,  90, 
91 

Moors  cultivate  cotton,  32 

Moravians,  17 

Morse,  Reverend  Jedidiah, 
father  of  S.  F.  B.,  131,  132 

Morse,  Richard,  brother  of 
S.  F.  B.,  135 

Morse,  Sidney,  brother  of  S.  F. 
B.,  135 

Morse,  S.  F.  B..  196;  and  the 
telegraph,  129-44;  birth 
(1791),  130;  early  life,  130- 
131;  interest  in  electricity, 
131,  134;  personal  char- 
acteristics, 132;  as  a  painter, 
132-33,  135-36;  marriage, 
133;  poverty,  135,  136-37, 
140;  at  New  York  Univer- 
sity, 137-38;  invents  tele- 
graph, 138-39;  petitions 
Congress  for  appropriation, 
139,  140,  141-42;  goes  to 
Europe,  139-40;  and  photog- 
raphy, 140,  153;  constructs 
line  between  Baltimore  and 
Washington,  142;  trial  mes- 
sage, 143;  death  (1872),  144; 
code  used  in  wireless,  146; 
Henry  and,  198,  201;  bibli- 
ography, 251 

Motion  pictures,  154-56; 
bibliography,  251-52 

Mulliken,  Samuel,  four  patents 
granted  to,  29;  invents 
threshing  machine,  120 

"Myrtle,  Mina,"  93 

New  England,  post  road,  15; 

textile  industry,  84  et  seq. 
New  England  Courant,  S 
New    York    (State),   in    1790, 

23 


New  York  City,  Franklin 
reaches,  8;  mail  service,  15 

New  York  University,  Morse 
on  teaching  staff  of,  137 

Newbold,  Charles,  invents 
plough,  112 

Newspapers,  inventions  to 
facilitate  printing,  146-49; 
bibliography,  251 

North,  Simeon,  manufactures 
firearms,  182 

North  Carolina,  buys  patent 
rights  from  Whitney,  48 

Northwest  Territory,  popu- 
lation (1790),  24 

Novelty,  The,  locomotive,  79 

Oersted,  H.  C.,  Danish  in- 
vestigator of  electricity, 
195 

Ogle,  Henry,  invents  reaper, 
116 

Ohm,  G.  S.,  German  investi- 
gator of  electricity,  195 

Oliver,  James,  Chilled  Plow 
Works,  114 

Olmstead,  Denison,  Memoir, 
quoted,  183 

Opdyke,  George,  manufactures 
clothing,  106-07 

Oruktor  Amphilolos,  steam 
dredging  machine,  72,  83 

Otis,  E.  G.,  improves  elevator, 
215 

Page,  C.  G.,  drives  electric  car 

(1851),  202 
Parlin,         William,         makes 

ploughs,  113 
Parsons,  C.  A.,  steam  turbine, 

218 
Patent    Act     (1790),     27-30; 

repealed,    30;   due   to   John 

Stevens,  176;  (1793),  30 
Patent  Arms  Company,  188 
Patent     Office,     organization, 

30 
Paul,    invents    projector    for 

motion  pictures,  155 


264 


INDEX 


Pawtucket  Canal  Company, 
91 

Peacock,  David,  invents 
plough,  112 

Pennsylvania  in  1790,  23 

"Pennsylvania  fireplace,"  9 

Pennsylvania  Gazette,  The,  6, 
149 

Pennsylvania  Society  for  the 
Encouragement  of  Manu- 
factures and  Useful  Arts, 
86 

Pennsylvania,  University  of, 
13 

Philadelphia,  Franklin  reaches, 
3;  mail  service,  15 

Philosophical  Magazine,  quoted, 
197 

Phoenix,  Stevens's  steamboat, 
60-61 

Phonograph,  152-53 

Photography,  140,  153-54; 
bibliography,  251;  see  also 
Motion  pictures 

Pitts,  H.  A.,  inventor  of  horse- 
power treadmill,  120 

Pitts,  J.  A.,  inventor  of  horse- 
power treadmill,  120 

Ploughs,  111-15 

Polk,  J.  K.,  candidate  for 
Presidency,  144 

Pony  Express,  145 

Pope,  F.  L.,  partner  of  Edison, 
208 

Pope,  Edison,  and  Company, 
first  firm  of  electrical  engi- 
neers in  United  States,  208 

Potash,  first  patent  for,  28 

Prime,  S.  I.,  The  Life  of  Samuel 
F.  B.  Morse,  quoted,  131- 
132,  138 

Printing,  type,  4,  12  (note); 
punches  for  type,  29;  steam 
driven  press,  147-48;  rotary 
press,  148;  stereotyping, 
148;  photo-engraving,  148; 
linotype,  149;  monotype, 
149;  bibliography,  251 

Providence     (Rhode     Island), 


attempt  to  make  spinning 
machinery  at,  86 

Pullman  Cars,  126 

Putnam,  Aaron,  patent  for  dis- 
tilling method,  29 

Radio  telegraphy,  see  Wireless 
telegraphy 

Railroads,  Stevens  advocates, 
75,  77;  Livingston's  ob- 
jections to,  76;  early,  77-78; 
beginning  of  use  of  locomo- 
tive, 79-81;  growth,  126; 
rails  invented  by  Stevens, 
178;  see  also  Electric  rail- 
ways, Locomotives,  Steam 
engines,  Transportation 

Read,  Lieutenant-Commander 
A.  C.,  transatlantic  flight, 
242-43 

Read,  Deborah,  wife  of  Ben- 
jamin Franklin,  4,  7-8 

Read,  Nathan,  30 

Reapers,  115-20,  121;  bibli- 
ography, 250 

Remington,  Eliphalet,  buys 
typewriter  patents,  151-52 

Revolutionary  War,  Franklin 
and,  18-21;  beginning  of, 
124 

Richmond  (Virginia),  first  elec- 
tric railway  system,  214 

Robinson,  Mrs.  W.  S.,  in  Low- 
ell mills,  93 

Rocket,  The,  locomotive,  79 

Roe,  J.  W.  English  and  Ameri- 
can Tool  Builders,  cited,  45 
(note),  49  (note),  181  (note), 
185  (note);  quoted,  182 

Root,  E.  K.,  and  Colt  factory, 
190 

Roxbury  (Massachusetts),  at- 
tempt to  make  waterproof 
clothing  at,  163-64 

Royal  Society,  Franklin 
elected  member  of,  11 

Royal  William,  steamship,  69 

Rozier,  Pilatre  de,  first  balloon 
flight,  221 


INDEX 


265 


Rubber,  157  et  seq.\  bibli- 
ography, 252 

Rumsey,  James,  steamboat, 
23,  29,  58 

Rust,  Samuel,  Washington 
press,  147 

Ryneveld,  Captain  van,  flight, 
from  Cairo  to  the  Cape, 
244 

Saint,  Thomas,  patents  sewing 

machine,  99 
Sampson,    J.    S.,    patent    for 

method  of  making  candles, 

29 
Sanspareil,     The,    locomotive, 

79 

Saturday  Evening  Post,  The,  6 
Saunders,      Richard,      alleged 

publisher  of  Poor  Richard's 

Almanack,  7 
Savannah  (Georgia),  post  road 

to,  15 
Savannah,  sailing  packet  using 

steam,  69 
Scott,  Major  G.  H.,  in  British 

dirigible,    Scotland   to   New 

York,  244 
Sellers,  Coleman,  Oliver  Evans 

and    his    Inventions,    cited, 

70  (note) 

Sewing  machine,  98  et  scq. 
Shirley,    Governor   of    Massa- 
chusetts, problem  of  raising 

funds  for  defense,  16 
Shoe  industry,  107-09 
Sholes,    C.    L.,    invents   type- 
writer, 151 
Shuttle,  flying,  35 
Silliman,    Benjamin,    Morse   a 

student  under,  130 
Singer,     I.     M.,     and     sewing 

machine,  104,  105,  106 
Slater,      Samuel,      comes      to 

United  States,  86;  introduces 

spinning   machinery,   87-88, 

97 
Slavery,  effect  of  cotton  gin  on, 

49-50;  and  Civil  War,  124 


Smith,  F.  O.  J.,  partner  of 
Morse,  142  (note) 

Smith,  Captain  Sir  Ross,  flight 
from  England  to  Australia, 
244 

Smithson,  James,  bequest  to 
United  States,  200 

Smithsonian  Institution.Henry 
as  head  of,  200-01 

Soule,  S.  W.,  and  the  type- 
writer, 151 

South,  Whitney  in,  37  et  teq.; 
effect  of  cotton  gin  on,  124. 
125 

South  Carolina,  pays  Whitney 
for  patent  rights,  45-46; 
suspends  contract  with 
Whitney,  47-48 

Spectator,  London,  quoted  in 
Pennsylvania  Gazette,  6 

Spinning  jenny,  35 

Spinning  machinery,  tee  Tex- 
tile industry  . 

Sprague,  F.  J.,  designs  motors, 
213;  electric  railway,  214 

Stanhope,  Earl,  Fulton  and, 
62 

Steam,  Greeks  discover  appli- 
cability of,  12  (note) 

Steam  engines,  53  et  teq.;  tee 
also  Locomotives 

Steam  turbine,  83 

Stebbins,  Josiah,  Whitney's 
letter  to,  44,  47-48 

Stephenson,  George,  experi- 
ments with  steam,  78;  The 
Rocket,  79;  builds  John  Bull, 
81 

Stephenson,  Robert,  The  Rock- 
et, 79 

Stevens,  E.  A.,  youngest  son  of 
John,  177;  founds  Stevens 
Institute  of  Technology, 
178;  inventions,  178 

Stevens,  John,  sets  up  machine 
shop,  23;  patent  for  propel- 
ling boat,  29;  attacks  steam- 
boat problem,  59-60;  Phoe- 
nix, 60-61;  communication 


266 


INDEX 


Stevens,  John — Continued 
to  Erie  Canal  commissioners, 
75,  77;  Livingston's  answer 
to,  76;  experiments  with 
locomotive,  78;  interest  in 
railroad,  75,  77,  78,  175; 
father  of  American  patent 
law,  176;  property  on  Hud- 
son, 176-77;  death  (1838), 
177;  bibliography,  249,  252 

Stevens,  J.  A.,  son  of  John,  177 

Stevens,  J.  C.,  son  of  John,  177 

Stevens,  R.  L.,  son  of  John, 
177;  mechanical  star  of 
family,  178;  first  ironclad 
battleship,  179 

Stevens  Battery,  first  ironclad 
battleship,  179 

Stevens  family,  bibliography, 
252 

Stevens  Institute  of  Technol- 
ogy, 178 

Stone,  John,  patent  for  method 
of  driving  piles,  29 

Stourbridge  Lion,  locomotive, 
78-79 

Strother,  General,  story  of 
Morse,  136-37 

Strutt,  Jedediah,  partner  of 
Arkwright,  86 

Sturgeon,  William,  on  Henry, 
197 

Submarines,  Fulton's  interest 
in,  63-64;  invented  by  Bush- 
nell,  64  (note) 

Sully,  ship,  134 

Sun,  New  York,  147 

Sutcliffe,  A.  C.,  Robert  Fulton 
and  the  Clermont,  cited,  65 
(note) 

Swan,  English  inventor  of 
carbon  filament,  211 

Tack-making  machine,  186 
Tariff,  beginning  of  protective, 

90 
Taylor,  Zachary,  Colt  supplies 

revolvers  to,  189 
Tedders,  122 


Telegraph,  128  et  seq.;  bibli- 
ography, 251 

Telephone,  146;  bibliography, 
251 

Telluride  (Colorado),  hydro- 
station  at,  218-19 

Tennessee,  pioneers  in  (1790), 
24;  buys  Whitney's  patents, 
48 

Tesla,  Nicola,  inventor  using 
alternating  current,  218 

Textile  industry,  in  England, 
33;  British  inventions,  35- 
36,  125;  in  New  England,  84 
et  seq.,  125;  see  also  Cotton 
manufacture 

Thimmonier,  French  inventor 
of  sewing  machine,  99-100 

Thomas,  buys  English  rights 
in  sewing  machine,  102 

Thompkins,  D.  A.,  Cotton  and 
Cotton  Oil,  quoted,  42 

Thomson,  Elihu,  process  of 
welding,  216;  chief  American 
inventor  in  domain  of  alter- 
nating current,  217-18 

Threshing  machines,  120-21 

Thurber,  Charles,  invents 
typewriter,  150 

Times,  London,  uses  American 
machines,  148 

Tom  Thumb,  locomotive,  80 

Transportation,  in  1790,  26; 
need  for  better,  57;  see  also 
Railroads 

Trevithick,  Richard,  78;  in- 
vents high-pressure  engine, 
55;  and  Evans,  56 

Tribune,  New  York,  147 

Trolley  system,  see  Electric 
railways 

Turner,  C.  C.,  The  Romance  of 
Aeronautics,  quoted,  236-37 

Type,  see  Printing 

Typewriters,  149-52;  bibli- 
ography, 251 

"Unitas  Fratrum,"  17 
United      States,      population 


INDEX 


267 


United  States — Continued 
(1790),     23-24;     industries, 
24-25;     mineral     resources, 
25;  cotton    production,   49; 
population  (1860),  124 

Universal  Instructor  in  All 
Arts  and  Sciences  and  Penn- 
sylvania Gazette,  The,  6 

Vail,  Alfred,  Morse  and,  138, 
139,  142  (note) 

Vail,  Judge  Stephen,  advances 
money  for  Morse's  experi- 
ments, 138 

Van  Depoele,  C.  J.,  con- 
tributions to  electric  rail- 
way, 214 

Vanderbilt,  Cornelius,  Good- 
year and, 170 

Voight,  Harry,  associate  of 
Fitch,  59 

Volta,  Alessandro,  Italian  in- 
vestigator of  electricity,  195 

Wages,  125-26 

Walker,    Lucretia,    wife   of   S. 

F.  B.  Morse,  133 
Waltham,  textile  mill  at,  89 
War  of  1812,  delays  establish- 
ment of  railroads,  77 
Washington,  George,  and  Eli 

Whitney,  184 
Watt,    James,    steam    engine, 

22,     36,     53-55,     56,     184; 

bibliography,  249 
Webster,  Daniel,  Goodyear  vs. 

Day,  157-60;  quoted,  164 
West,  Benjamin,  and  Fulton, 

62;     Morse    studies    under, 

133 

West  Point,  locomotive,  81 
Western      Union      Telegraph 

Company.  209 


Westinghouse,  George,  auto- 
matic air  brake,  126;  inven- 
tor, 218 

Wheeler  and  Wilson,  manu- 
facturers of  sewing  machines. 
106 

Whitney,  Eli,  and  the  cotton 
gin,  32  et  teq.\  birth  (1765), 
36;  youth,  36-37;  education, 
37;  letter  to  his  father 
quoted,  38-40;  plan  for 
commercializing  invention, 
41-43;  infringements  on 
patent  44,  45;  States  buy 
patent,  rights,  45-48;  fight  for 
rights  in  Georgia,  51;  manu- 
facture of  firearms,  52,  180- 
82,  183;  standardization  of 
parts,  180-82;  marriage,  183; 
death  (1825),  184;  business 
sold  to  Winchester  Repeating 
Arms  Company,  184;  bibli- 
ography, 248-49,  252-53 

Wilkinson,  John,  English  ma- 
chine tool  inventor,  184 

Wilson,  A.  B.,  inventions  on 
sewing  machine,  104 

Wilson,  T.  L.,  produces  cal- 
cium carbide,  217 

Winchester  Repeating  Arms 
Company  buys  Whitney's 
business,  184 

"Wizard  of  Menlo  Park," 
name  for  Edison,  215 

Wood,  Jethro,  invents  plough, 
112 

Wright,  Orville,  and  the  air- 
plane, 235-40 

Wright,  Silas,  telegraph  brings 
refusal  of  nomination  to 
convention,  144 

Wright,  Wilbur,  and  the  air- 
plane, 235-40 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

405  Hilgard  Avenue,  Los  Angeles,  CA  90024-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


1995 

221995 


UCLA-Cotog*  Ubrwy 

T 19  T5 1921 


L  005  763  265  5 


A    001  067  896    9 


